In a major loss of faith to the Congress and more so for the prime minister, former minister of state for coal Dasari Narayan Rao and business tycoon and Congress MP Naveen Jindal were booked by the CBI on Tuesday for allegedly cheating and indulging in graft in its fresh FIR in the coal scam. The CBI has booked Rao and Jindal for alleged cheating and that Rao received Rs 2.5 crore bribe from Jindal.

 

The  FIR is so embarrassing for the Congress in general and prime minister in particular as the scam took place when the PM was handling the coal ministry. During its eight-month long probe into the scam, it is for the first time the then minister of state has been named as accused in an FIR by CBI in which it has alleged that he had received Rs 2.25 crore camoflaged as investment from one of Jindal firms within a year of allocating him a coal block.

 

CBI sources said Jindal Steel & Power and Gagan Sponge Iron, also a firm of Jindal's, had bagged Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Birbhum, Jharkhand in 2008 by alleged misrepresentation of facts when Rao was the minister. It said the misrepresentation was allegedly done on three counts land, water supply and previous allocations.They said JSPL allegedly claimed in application submitted in January 2007 that they had only three coal blocks with them where as actually they had at least six coal blocks. This was done to boost their eligibility for the coal block as the government was mulling to avoid monopoly of single company by not allocating large number of blocks to one firm. Within a year,a block was allocated to JSPL in January 2008, CBI sources claimed, noting that shares of Rao's firm Saubhagya Media listed at Rs 28 that time were purchased by one of Jindal firms, New Delhi Exim, at whopping Rs 100 per share with total investment of nearly Rs 2.25 crore which is alleged to be illegal gratification.

 

In the account books of New Delhi Exim, the said money was shown as loans from Jindal Realty which in turn had received the money as loan from Gagan Sponge Iron to show it to be a genuine investment. Besides Jindal and Rao, CBI has also booked companies Jindal Steel & Power, Gagan Sponge Iron Jindal's companies–Jindal Realty and ND Exim and Rao's company Saubhagya Media. The sources said unknown members of screening committee, which cleared the allocation, and unknown directors of accused private companies also figure in the FIR.

 

After registering the FIR, the agency carried out searches at 15 locations including residence and offices of Jindal in the Capital and Rao in Hyderabad. The agency team carried out coordinated searches at the 6, Prithviraj Road residence of Jindal and offices of his firms in Bikaji Cama Place. The sources said Jindal was not present at his residence so the sleuths sealed some cupboards and rooms which would be opened in his presence once he returns. Rao, a former Congress Rajya Sabha MP, held position of MoS for coal between 2004-06 and between 2006-08. He has already been quizzed by the agency in connection with the probe into the scam.

 

BJP spokesperson Prakash Javdekar has termed the CBI action as too little too late and wanted the agency to trace the money trail in this case of "monumental corruption.” And asked for extending the probe into the prime minister.