One more special court needed to deal with coalgate cases: Supreme Court told

NEW DELHI: One more special CBI court is needed to deal with the rising number of cases pertaining to coal block allocations, a special public prosecutor today told the Supreme Court.

"One more special court can be constituted to deal with the cases in the coal block allocations scam," senior advocate R S Cheema told a three-judge bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur.

Cheema, who was appointed special prosecutor by the apex court to conduct trial in coal scam cases, also gave details of cases and said there are as many as 12 FIRs pertaining to coal block allocations made during 1993-2005.

"32 cases have been registered in connection with coal block allocations made during 2006-2009," he told the bench which also comprised Justices Kurian Joseph and A K Sikri.

The prosecutor said that CBI had filed closure reports in five cases, while the court has rejected the reports in four matters and decided to go ahead with the prosecution of the accused.

The apex court today also sought responses from the CBI and ED for a probe into the Aditya Birla Group's alleged hawala transactions which cropped up during the probe of the coal scam.