2.4.15

Talabira II tangle update

Even as the Supreme Court stayed the summons issued to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Kumar Mangalam Birla and others, the CBI is likely to take the same stand as it did in the lower court in the allocation of Talabira II to Hindalco. The agency had sought closure of the case twice as it did not find any evidence of irregularities.
It had stated in the Special CBI court at Patiala House that “there was no criminality on part of former PM Manmohan Singh, Kumar Mangalam Birla and others in the allocation of Talabira II to Hindalco“.
The agency's director Anil Sinha, director of prosecution O P Verma and other senior officials examined the case files thoroughly and they all had found that there was no evidence of malafide.An official said that the “agency's stand on the case would be presented before the apex court after legally examining it once again“.
During the tenure of Ranjit Sinha as agency chief, the investigating officer and a few other subordinates had opined that “they should go ahead with filing a chargesheet in the case“, which was struck down by Ranjit Sinha. His viewpoint was that “there was no mens rea (criminal intent) on part of Manmohan Singh and others“.
The CBI probe had given a clean chit to Singh, Birla and Parakh stating that “Talabira-II was allocated in national interest“. The CBI, since the registration of an FIR in October 2013, twice contradicted its FIR and mentioned in its final reports that there was “no criminality“ in the allocation of Talabira II coal block to Hindalco.
Manmohan Singh had defended the allocation saying the decision was “appropriate and that he had approved it on the basis of merits of the case placed before him“.
In its closure report, the CBI stated that allocation was done in the “larger interest of the country“ and keeping in view of the legal framework.“......facts and circumstances submitted does not disclose any illegality or malafide on the part of Shri KM Birla for pursuing the matter for allocation of Talabira II coal block with the concerned public servants,“ CBI stated.It added that allocation was not done in secrecy or under inducement but in public.

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