Coal scam case: After Manmohan Singh, CBI examines Kumar Mangalam Birla

NEW DELHI: Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla has also been questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the coal block allocation case involving Hindalco, sources in the probe agency have said. News agency PTI also reported, citing sources, that Birla had been examined by CBI. Aspokeswoman of the Aditya Birla Group however denied that Birla had been questioned in the recent past. “He was questioned by the CBI long ago, before CBI filed a closure report last year,” the Aditya Birla Group spokesperson said. The CBI spokesperson also did not confirm the development.

“With reference to queries from media regarding the Hindalco case - It is a court monitored investigation and whatever CBI has to say, it will submit to the court in the next hearing,” the spokesperson said on Wednesday evening. The report on the examination of Birla comes after it was revealed on Tuesday that CBI had questioned former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the case on Sunday.

Singh is said to have denied any wrong-doing in the allocation to Hindalco or any quidquo-pro, sources in the probe agency said. CBI has also recently quizzed former Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, TKA Nair as well a former private secretary to Singh who currently occupies a senior position in the office of the present Prime Minister according to sources familiar with the ongoing probe.

Nair flew down recently from Kerala to Delhi for his interrogation which took place earlier this month, it is learnt The case will be heard by the Special CBI court on January 27. The court is examining the validity of a closure report filed by the CBI in a case arising out of the allocation of a coal block made to aluminium- maker Hindalco in 2005.