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The 5 companies whose premises the CBI has raided in connection with the allocations.

The companies: Strong links,false info-The 5 companies whose premises the CBI has raided in connection with the allocations

The CBI probe into coal block allocations has reportedly found that companies that got the blocks,apart from having strong backing,had submitted false accounts and withheld information before the screening committee. Here are the five companies whose offices were raided at various locations,and what the CBI is probing them for.

Navbharat Power Private Limited,Hyderabad

Allotted coal blocks at Rampia,Orissa,in 2008. The company has been booked for forgery and criminal conspiracy along with its directors P Trivikrama Prasad and Y Harish Chandra Prasad. According to the CBI,the Prasad brothers owned two other companies,Navabharat Ventures and Mahalaxmi Energy. They set up Navbharat Power in 2006 and it was allotted the coal blocks. The FIR alleges that Navbharat sold its blocks to Essar Power at an inflated price and made a wrongful gain of Rs 200 crore.

The firm had allegedly furnished wrong information and inflated its net worth at the time of filing its application. Initially,the CBI says,it claimed to have entered into a memorandum of understanding for 90 days with a Singapore-based energy company,whose net worth it cited as around Rs 2.5 crore,but this MoU had expired by the time it filed the application. By then,it reportedly claimed,the project was being backed by another international energy firm,Suez Energy International,and its net worth was Rs 1 lakh crore. The CBI says it has found that Suez Energy was never associated with Navbharat.

Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Limited,Kolkata

Allotted coal blocks at Rajhara North,Jharkhand,in 2008. The company had been set up in 2004 by the Tulsyan group. When it first applied for the blocks,Vini Iron failed to clear the screening committee,the reason cited by the coal ministry being that since the state government then headed by chief minister Arjun Munda has sent a dissent note on allocation to Vini Iron,the same could not be given. The company applied afresh and its luck changed along with the change of government in Jharkhand,once Madhu Koda had become the chief minister.

According to the CBI,the ownership pattern of Vini Iron changed soon after the application. The company was sold to Vijay Joshi,an alleged front for Koda. It has been alleged that Joshi bought it at a throwaway price and became one of the directors in May 2008. It was soon after this that Vini Iron was allocated the coal blocks,and investigations have reportedly found that the allocation was made on the recommendation of the then Jharkhand government.

JLD Yavatmal Energy Limited,Nagpur

Allocated blocks in Fatehpur East,Chhattisgarh,in 2008. The company is named after a former Congress leader,father of MP Vijay Darda and minister Rajendra Darda. The CBI is probing a number of alleged irregularities committed by JLD for cornering the blocks,including alleged false claims about its net worth. It is said to have roped in Manoj Jayaswal and won the backing of the Lokmat group. The charges against the Congress MP and his relatives include cheating and criminal conspiracy. Darda has said,I quit these companies in 2009 and had no role to play in the coal block allocation. The others directors who have been named are Vijays son Devendra Darda,Manoj Jayaswal,Anand Jayaswal and Abhishek Jayaswal Manojs son.

JAS Infrastructure Capital Private Ltd,Kolkata

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Allocated coal blocks in Mahuagarhi,Jharkhand,in2008. The company is owned by Manoj Jayaswal,with the other directors named in the FIR being his son Abhishek Jayaswal and Anand Jayaswal. The CBIs investigations have reportedly found that JAS Infrastructure,which had common promoters with Manoj Jayaswals Abhijeet group,furnished false information. While filing the application,the firm claimed it had not been allocated coal blocks earlier although,the CBI points out,it already had got five such allocations. According to the FIR,the firm wilfully suppressed the information as it would have been required to provide the status of mining into the already allocated blocks,which would have hampered its chances of getting another.

The company is said to have had the support of public servants who were part of either the screening committee or ministries. Questioning of public servants,says the CBI,showed that the group had been favoured despite furnishing false information as the government servants had chosen to ignore the ineligilibilty.

AMR Iron amp; Steel Private Limited,Nagpur

Allocated coal blocks in Bander,Maharashtra,in 2009. The CBI says that after JLD and JAS garnered coal blocks with false and forged representations,a decision was taken to set up AMR and get another mine. A CBI official said,The directors of AMR Iron and the two other firms that were allotted coal blocks in 2008 are common. It is surprising that this was not red-flagged by members of the screening committee or the coal ministry while allocating the coal blocks.

Among the directors who have been named are Manoj Jayaswal,his brothers Arbind Jayaswal and Ramesh Jayaswal,and Devendra,son of Vijay Darda. The CBI has alleged that AMR gave false information on its net worth and this was backed by the Abhijeet Group and Lokmat. When contacted,a spokesperson for the Abhijeet group,Abhishek Mathai,said,Discussions are under way and we will come out with a statement soon in reply to media queries.