Coalgate missing files: CBI to register PE, 15 files missing

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation ( CBI) has determined that 15-18 crucial files or documents have gone missing beyond retrieval regarding the coal block allocation scam with the coal ministry even denying the very existence of few documents.

After an elaborate meeting between the coal ministry and CBI officials on Thursday, there was a ‘consensus’ that CBI could first lodge a preliminary enquiry (PE) against the custodian store-keepers of the files by Friday or Saturday regarding the missing documents, before the Supreme Court hears the matter next Tuesday.

Coal ministry officials insisted that a PE may be first lodged by the CBI which may be converted into an FIR at a later stage if some instance of mala-fide is established, a senior CBI official said. “The Supreme Court order on August 29 said a report shall be filed with CBI for appropriate inquiry or investigation. It was not specified whether an FIR or PE should be lodged in the matter,” the CBI official said.

Among the files whose very existence is now being denied by the coal ministry includes the final minutes of the 26th screening committee meeting, a CBI official said.

The ministry had earlier informed the CBI on August 7 that the final minutes of the committee were not traceable in the steel ministry, Coal India, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Central Mines Planning or Design Institute Limited. “It is now been said that the final minutes were never prepared and hence the document does not exist… only draft minutes are available,” a CBI official said. Other documents whose existence is being denied include scrutiny reports regarding financial strength of certain applicant companies prepared by CIL.