The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed the closure report in a coal block allocation case against industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, former coal secretary P C Parakh and others. The closure report, filed in the court of special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar, came months after the probe agency filed an FIR, naming Parakh, Birla and officials of his Hindalco in connection with alleged irregularities in the allocation of Talabira II coal block. The court will take up the closure report for consideration on September 1. In October last year, the CBI had filed the FIR related to allocations of Talabira II coal block in 2005. It had alleged that the then coal secretary Parakh had reversed a decision of the Screening Committee to reject coal block allocation to Hindalco. The CBI had said the coal blocks were allocated to PSUs Mahanadi Coalfields and Neyveli Lignite Corporation on the recommendation of the screening panel. But Parakh, after a meeting with Birla , recommended a joint venture between the PSUs and Hindalco, it had alleged.
