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Did you probe coal diversion from Sasan, SC asks CBI

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the CBI whether it had investigated alleged diversion of coal from captive coal blocks allotted to Reliance ADAG's Sasan ultra mega power project (UMPP) and asked for its response by April 27.

Citing the SC's September 24 judgment cancelling allocation of 214 coal blocks since 1993, advocate Prashant Bhushan informed the court that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had estimated that loss from diversion of coal from captive coal blocks allotted to Sasan UMPP alone stood at Rs 29,000 crore.

Bhushan told a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, Kurian Joseph and A K Sikri that in the September 24 judgment, the court had held that diversion of coal from captive mines allotted to power projects was illegal and had banned any further diversion.

He said captive coal blocks were allotted to UMPPs to help project proponents sell power generated by them at a cheaper price to the grid. Sasan UMPP was allotted Moher and Moher Amroli Extension coal blocks.

The bench asked the CBI's counsel Amarendra Saran whether the agency had probed this aspect of the coal scam. Saran said the investigating agency had registered three FIRs relating to diversion of coal from captive mines but was unable to specify whether the FIRs included any against Sasan UMPP.

"Inform us on this. So far, you (the CBI) have not given any probe status report to us on this," the bench said.

Bhushan said a probe was needed against Sasan UMPP as Reliance ADAG officials had met then CBI director Ranjit Sinha several times at his official residence when the agency was investigating the scam in allocation of coal blocks under the apex court's supervision.

The court sought a clarification: "Was there a condition in allocation that the coal block would be used only for the power project?" Bhushan said the condition was intrinsic to the allocation and that was why the apex court in its September 24 judgment warned against any diversion of coal blocks even though it had rejected the plea of NGO 'Centre for Public Interest Litigation' for cancellation of allocations.

After the court asked for an update from the CBI on alleged diversion of coal from Sasan UMPP, Bhushan said there were instances where a single private party had entered into joint ventures with public sector undertakings or state government companies who were allotted coal blocks.

After entering into JVs, the coal blocks were illegally handed over to the private party for mining, he alleged and sought a probe into this. The court asked the CBI to inform it on April 27 on this issue as well.

However, the court did not seek the CBI's response when Bhushan alleged that the government had buried the case of a CBI raid on Hindalco group, recovery of documents, cash and a diary which allegedly had details of money being paid to important people. The counsel said the case was handed over to the income tax department.

In its latest probe status report on coal scam, the Enforcement Directorate informed the court through counsel Amit Anand Tiwari that it had registered cases against 18 companies under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).


source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com