New Delhi: The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) yesterday handed over the files relating to allocation of coal blocks in Odisha to Hindalco to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), informed sources said.
“We have given entire files relating to the Talabira coal block to the CBI. We have taken a receipt from them and told them that any information needed further will be provided,” a source said. The probe agency had named Hindalco along with Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla and former coal secretary P C Parakh in its 14th FIR in the allocation of coal blocks.
It wrote to the PMO seeking file details of Talabira-II and Talabira-III coal blocks in Odisha allocated to Hindalco in 2005 following a PMO decision. The agency filed a fresh case for alleged irregularities and criminal conspiracy in the allocation of these two coal blocks. The CBI wants to review the files before proceeding with the probe.
The CBI’s move comes after the PMO had Oct 19 defended the allocation of coal blocks to Hindalco. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday said he “was not above the law” and was willing to be questioned by the CBI in the coal block allocations as he had “nothing to hide”.
Guwahati: An irate mob yesterday clashed with police at Azara near Assam’s capital city Guwahati after the recovery of the decomposed bodies of two women from near a railway track in the area a day ago.
Senior Superintendent of Police (City) A P Tiwary said that the clash between the local people and men in uniform took place yesterday after police recovered two decomposed bodies. Police have detained four people for questioning over the deaths of the two girls.
Unsatisfied with the action, some people gathered near the police station in Azara and demanded that they be given custody of the four detained people, the police officer said.
Some local people alleged that the four had gang-raped the girls and killed them on Tuesday night.
IANS
