CBI quizzes former Odisha official in the coal block scam

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation has examined a former top bureaucrat of the Naveen Patnaik government in the coal block allocation scam, asking him why the Odisha chief minister wrote to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2005 pitching for a coal block to be allotted to Hindalco Industries.

Retired IAS officer Bhaskar Chatterjee was questioned recently, the agency confirmed to ET. The CBI has apparently got the clarifications it needed from the officer and now may not require questioning of the chief minister, a senior officer said. This would be a relief to the BJP-led Central government, which needs Patnaik’s support in the Rajya Sabha where the ruling alliance doesn’t have a majority.

Chatterjee was examined as a witness, the official said. Chatterjee could not be contacted for comment. He also didn’t respond to an email.

Chatterjee was the principal secretary for steel and mines in the state in 2005 when Patnaik wrote to Singh, which resulted in the government reversing its earlier decision to not allot a coal mine to the Aditya Birla Group company. This decision is now at the heart of an ongoing criminal probe against Hindalco and the aluminium maker’s chairman, Kumar Mangalam Birla.