M A I N   N E W S

CBI files cases against 5 firms in coal scam
Names Cong MP Vijay Darda
Conducts raids at 30 places across country
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 4
The CBI on Tuesday carried out raids at 30 locations across the country after filing cases against five companies for alleged criminal conspiracy to get coal blocks by fudging their net worth and misrepresenting facts. The agency named Congress MP Vijay Darda in one of the FIRs.

Closing in on alleged irregularities by five private companies, the CBI on Tuesday filed FIRs naming several persons, including Darda, an MP from Maharashtra.

After nearly three months of a preliminary inquiry following a reference from the Central Vigilance Commission, the CBI filed five separate cases against Vini Iron and Steel, Nav Bharat Power Private Limited (Hyderabad), JLD Yavatmal (Nagpur), in which Vijay Darda and his family members have been named as directors, JAS Infra Capital Private Limited (Kolkata) and AMR Iron and Steel (Nagpur). It also registered cases against unknown public servants on charges of conspiracy and cheating.

The cases were registered over allegations related to getting coal blocks allocated on the basis of “misrepresentations and false claims in the applications, presentations and connivance/lack of due diligence on part of public servants’’, the CBI said. The promoters of some of these companies have allegedly sold their stakes in an irregular manner after they were allocated coal blocks, the agency said.

The CBI’s searches took place in in 11 cities, including Nagpur, Kolkata, Bhilai, Yavatmal, Raipur, Dhanbad, Ranchi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi (NCR).

The filing of cases and raids come in the midst of a raging controversy over the CAG report on the coal block allocation that has stalled Parliament for more than two weeks. However, the CBI said the action had nothing to do with the CAG report.

The agency’s first information report names Arvind Kumar Jayaswal, Manoj Jayaswal, Ramesh Jayaswal and Devendra Darda (directors of AMR Iron and Steel Private Limited, Nagpur); Vijay Darda, Rajendra Darda, Devendra Darda, Manoj Jayaswal, Anand Jayaswal and Abhishek (directors of JLD Yavatmal Energy Limited, Nagpur); and directors of Hyderabad-based Navbharat Power Private Ltd -- P Trivikrama Prasad, Y Harish Chandra Prasad.