Coal news and updates

ED summons former coal minister Dasari Narayana Rao

Stepping up its heat into the multicrore coal block allocation scam, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned former minister of state for coal Dasari Narayana Rao in connection with coal block allocated to former Congress MP Naveen Jindal's companies during the Congress-led UPA's tenure.

According to sources, Rao was summoned to appear before ED on Wednesday. However, he is learnt to have sought time till next week due to some personal reasons. ED officials said that they will work out the new dates and will send a fresh summon for the next date. After this, the agency plans to examine Jindal and others under the money laundering charges, said officials.

In its FIR filed against Jindal and Rao, ED has alleged that a company owned by former and current directors of the Naveen Jindal Group, and then by Jindal himself (Jindal Realty), gave an unsecured loan of Rs.2.25 crore in 2008 to a trading firm (ND Exim), which used it to buy new shares at Rs.112.5 a piece, about four times the market price (Rs.28) on that day on the BSE, of a company (Sowbhagya Media) owned by Rao.

The agency also said that for the first time they are also examining the role of "unknown members of the government screening committee", which decided on the allocations. Rao, a former Congress Rajya Sabha MP, was the minister of state for coal between 2004 and 2006, and between 2006 and 2008.

Of the 250 coal block allotments made between 2004 and 2011, 154 were made during Rao's tenure. A senior ED official, on the condition of anonymity, said the agency suspected JSPL had paid what the person described as "bribes" to Rao in the form of an investment of Rs.2.25 crore made by Jindal Realty in Rao's company.

It is further alleged that the minister, in turn, prevailed upon screening committee members to allot the Amarkonda Murgadangal block to Jindal's companies in Jharkhand despite Jindal's companies misrepresenting specific facts pertaining to previous coal block allocations to them. The CBI also filed its FIR on similar allegations.

Source: India Today