Coalgate scam: CBI books 3 companies, BJP leader Anup Agarwala

Ahead of filing a status report in the Supreme Court in the coal scam probe, the Central Bureau of Investigation ( CBI) on Wednesday booked three companies, and for the first time, a BJP leader, who were allegedly favoured for coal blocks before the UPA government came to power.

The companies named in two fresh FIRs are BLA Industries, Castron Technologies and Castron Mining, along with unknown government officials and private persons, including the directors of the said companies.

The Managing Director of BLA Industries, Anup Agarwala, who unsuccessfully contested the Rajya Sabha polls in 2009 on a BJP ticket from MP, has been booked by the CBI.

Anup Agarwala is also a permanent invitee to Jharkhand State Working Committee of the BJP and a special invitee to BJP’s national executive. Agarwala’s company was allotted two coal blocks in MP — Gotitoria (East) and Gotitoria (West) in Mahapani coalfields —on June 21, 1996, during the tenure of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda.

"It has been alleged that the BLA Industries, instead of establishing an end use project for which the coal blocks were allocated, was mining the coal and selling it in the market," the CBI said in a statement.