New Delhi, June 18
The CBI quizzed two former officials of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and summoned former secretary of the Coal Ministry, HC Gupta, in connection with the alleged irregularities in allotment of coal blocks, sources said.

The investigating agency questioned two former PMO officials — Vini Mahajan, 1987 batch IAS officer from Punjab cadre, and Ashish Gupta, an IPS officer of 1989 batch from Uttar Pradesh cadre — who were posted in the PMO between 2006 and 2009. They were questioned as witnesses in the case. During that period, the Prime Minister was handling the charge of the Coal Ministry.

Mahajan was a director with the PMO during the period and has now been repatriated back to the state where she is a Principal Secretary-level officer. Asish Gupta was the vigilance officer in the PMO and has also gone back to his parent state.

The CBI has also summoned former secretary of the Coal Ministry as he was de-facto chairman of the screening committee which allocated coal blocks during 2006-09, the sources said.

The working of the screening committee has come under the scanner of the agency as CBI has accused “unnamed officials of the screening committee”, in its latest FIR against Congress MP Naveen Jindal and former Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao, of being part of a criminal conspiracy. So far, the CBI has registered 12 FIRs in the case.