Coal blocks allocation scam: SC to resume hearing

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posted on 11 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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On Monday, the CBI filed an application seeking the apex court's permission to share details about the probe with the government.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will resume hearing arguments in the coal blocks allocation scam case on Wednesday. Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan is expected to give his opinion about the government affidavit on CBI's autonomy. On Monday, the CBI filed an application seeking the apex court's permission to share details about the probe with the government.

The CBI had approached the Supreme Court for modification of an earlier order on the coal block allocation scam. The court had on May 8 directed the agency not to share any information with the government.

The CBI had countered that order and approached the court saying that as the scope of investigation has expanded, it will need to share details with the government for seeking sanction and jurisdiction. The agency now wants the apex court to modify its order to that extent.

On Monday, the CBI also filed a status report in the apex court on the coal block allocation scam. The CBI gave the status of 13 FIRs and three Preliminary Enquiries (PEs) in a sealed envelope to the Supreme Court.

The report also gave details of former CBI Chief Investigating Officer Vivek Dutt's case. Dutt was caught taking a bribe of Rs 15 lakh on May 17. The CBI Internal Intelligence Unit nabbed Dutt in an operation that was personally supervised by the agency's director Ranjit Sinha.

The CBI had questioned various government officials including former coal secretary HC Gupta for their role in the coal scam. The CBI had recorded statements of two officials of the Prime Minister's Office as part of its probe into the scam. The CBI sought clarification from Vini Mahajan and Ashish Gupta regarding the allocation of the coal blocks.

The CBI had filed its second affidavit on the coal scam in the Supreme Court earlier in May and had stated that Ashwani Kumar, who resigned from his post of the Law Minister after the affidavit came to light, Attorney General GE Vahanvati and officials from the PMO and the Coal Ministry had seen the probe agency's report and suggested changes to it.