Just over a month after the special court had directed the CBI to examine former prime minister Manmohan Singh in connection with the coal block allocation involving K M Birla-owned Hindalco, the agency on Tuesday in a sealed cover filed statements of “various persons” in its further probe into the case.
The CBI filed the progress report before special judge Bharat Parashar, along with the statements of the various persons as recorded by the central agency during the course of further investigation in the Hindalco coal block case. The moves comes after the special court had directed the CBI to examine Manmohan Singh, the then coal minister, and other official of the PMO, including former principal secretary T K A Nair and private secretary B V R Subramanyam.
You have exhausted your monthly limit of free stories.
Read more stories for free with an Express account.
Seeking two weeks time to complete its probe in the 2005 allocation of Talabira II coal block to Hindalco, the special public prosecutor V K Sharma requested the special court that till the “completion of further probe”, the statements filed by the agency “may be kept in the sealed cover” and “may not be allowed for inspection”.
The special judge Parashar, however, opened the sealed cover, and perused the statements of the persons recorded, but later ordered that the documents be kept in a sealed cover. “The sealed cover has been, however, opened and I have perused the statement of the persons recorded and the documents thereof. It its directed that statements and the documents be kept in a sealed cover and be sealed with the seal of the court,” the special judge said.
The special court has now put up the matter for filing the progress report on the further probe on February 19.
Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies.
With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health.
His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award.
Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time.
Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More
