Coal scam: CBI files case against company that got mining licence in Chhattisgarh

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigating the coal scam has filed a case against a company for allegedly misrepresenting facts to get a mining licence in Chhattisgarh.

The case is against Pushp Steels Private Limited and its directors Atul Jain and Sanjay Jain. CBI officials today searched the company's offices in Raipur, Narwana in Haryana and Delhi.

CBI sources claimed it is alleged in the First Information Report (FIR) that the company got a mining lease despite having no experience or enough capital required for mining operations.

This is the eleventh case filed by the CBI in the coal scam. The agency had earlier booked some companies for alleged cheating, forgery and misrepresentation of facts in their applications for coal blocks.

Last year, the Central Vigilance Commission entrusted to the CBI a probe into BJP leader Prakash Javadekar's complaint that irregularities had been committed in the allotment of coal mines for captive use. Congress MPs also filed complaints on coal block allocations made during the NDA government's tenure.

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Based on these complaints, the CBI registered three preliminary enquiries to probe the alleged irregularities in coal block allocations to private companies between 2006 and 2009, allocation of blocks between 1993 and 2004 and allocation of coal blocks to joint venture companies which included a private player.

The FIRs registered by the CBI are from its first preliminary enquiry, which focuses on the allotments made between 2006 and 2009.

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The Comptroller and Auditor General has said that 142 coal fields allocated between 2004 and 2009 allowed beneficiaries to make staggering benefits of up to Rs 1.86 lakh crore as mining rights were given at undervalued rates instead of auction.