New Delhi:
In a scathing criticism of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), a Delhi special court has slammed the investigating agency by rejecting its closure report in a coal scam case.
The First Information Report, or FIR, pertained to the allocation of coal blocks to Kamal Sponge Steel and Power Limited and involved former coal secretary HC Gupta. The agency was expected to file a chargesheet. Instead, it filed a closure report.
The court has now asked all the people named in the FIR - including Mr Gupta - to appear before it as accused.
The court's move came at a time when the Supreme Court has called all coal block allocations illegal and the special court observed that it found the CBI's filing a closure report instead of a chargesheet "apparently wrong".
In its 31-page order today, the court said the investigation by the agency had been sketchy and was more of a "defence given by accused" and there was "hardly any understanding of the facts".
The case against Kamal Sponge Steel is one of misleading and misrepresenting facts and it involves unknown government officials.
Mr Gupta was the only senior bureaucrat to be implicated in the coal scam. The accusations against them involved conspiracy, cheating and misrepresentation of facts.
The agency has also moved to close the case against industrialist KM Birla in the coal scam even though crucial files are missing. In its response to this, the court again wanted to know why the agency was in a hurry to close the case.