Business leaders can't be made scapegoats of mere suspicion: Ficci

NEW DELHI: Industry body Ficci today said business leaders cannot be made scapegoats of "mere suspicion and misconstrued actions," reacting to CBI lodging a case against industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla earlier this week, who has been named in an FIR in the coal-gate scam.

"Such developments dent the national psyche and dampen investor confidence, both domestic and foreign. With repeated episodes of a trust deficit between industry and government, the business sentiment and the investment environment would be vitiated," Ficci Presient Naina Lal Kidwai said.

"Capable and highly regarded business leaders cannot be made scapegoats of mere suspicion and misconstrued actions," Kidwai said.

The CBI earlier this week filed a case against Birla as a representative of Aditya Birla Group and his group company, aluminium maker Hindalco, for alleged corruption in the allocation of Talabira two coal blocks in Odisha which was allotted to it on November 10, 2005.

The agency also named former Coal Secretary P C Parakh in the FIR on charges of criminal conspiracy and corruption in connection with alleged irregularities in allocation of coal blocks eight years back.