Former Coal Secretary PC Parakh (file photo)
While he was the government's Coal Secretary in 2005, PC Parakh wrote to the Prime Minister, warning that the Coal Ministry, then headed by Shibu Soren, was "run by the mafia." Mr Parakh was accused a few days ago by the CBI of conspiracy and cheating, along with industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, to help the entrepreneur's firm land two coal blocks in Odisha.
The Prime Minister, who endorsed that decision at the time, has defended the deal as "entirely appropriate." The former national auditor, Vinod Rai, who in 2012 alleged that Rs 1.86 lakh crores had been lost by giving coal licenses without a transparent bidding process has also told NDTV that he investigated the mining rights in question and found no irregularities.
Letters written in 2005, which have been accessed by NDTV, reveal that then Coal Minister Shibu Soren was trying to get Mr Parakh transferred as the bureaucrat lobbied for the introduction of bidding for coal licenses, a move the minister opposed.
Mr Soren wrote to the Prime Minster on February 7, 2005, asking for Mr Parakh to transferred alleging that he was deliberately attempting to suppress information about the coal mafia, that he was bypassing ministers, and not listening to the political executive.
In a strongly-worded reply the next month, Mr Parakh wrote to the PM that the minister had '(the) best knowledge of coal mafia since he comes from (the) state which is stronghold of coal mafia', a reference to Jharkhand, Mr Soren's home state.
Mr Parakh also said in the same letter to the PM that the coal mafia existed within the government and ministries, and that the "strong commitment" needed to counter it didn't exist. He also said that the signatures of parliamentarians could be obtained "for a price" and that law-makers were blackmailing civil servants and officials for personal gain.
The letters from Mr Parakh and Mr Soren to the Prime Minister were found by the CBI when it raided the former coal secretary's home in Hyderabad earlier this month after he was named in the agency's latest First Information Report or FIR.