Coal scam case : Court directs CBI to respond to Javadekar's petition

A special court has directed the CBI to respond by September 6 to the objections of Union Ministers Prakash Javadekar and Hansraj Ahir against its move to close a coal scam case.

Special Judge Bharat Parashar allowed the probe agency’s plea seeking time to respond to the ministers’ petition in a case involving Prakash Industries Ltd and others as accused.

HRD Minister Javadekar and Ahir, Minister of State for Home, who are complainants in the case, had approached the court seeking rejection of the CBI’s closure report, and a direction to the agency to further investigate it and file a supplementary charge sheet.

In 2014, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) had started proceedings based on the complaints made by the two ministers.

The case was registered on the basis of the CVC’s reference. But after completing the probe, the CBI had filed a closure report in 2014, saying no incriminating evidence had come on record warranting prosecution of any accused.

The two BJP leaders had claimed in their petition that the PIL had deliberately misrepresented facts to the 35th screening committee with the connivance of others to get the coal block in Chhattisgarh’s Fatehpur allotted to it, and the CBI had wrongly accepted the claims made by the accused.

Their petition came in response to the court’s earlier notice, asking them whether they wanted to submit anything on the final report in the case.