New Delhi: A special court on Thursday asked CBI investigating officers (IO) in the coal blocks allocation scam cases to go through the recent Supreme Court judgement in which all coal blocks allocated during 1993 to 2010 were held illegal.
Special CBI judge Bharat Parashar, who is exclusively dealing with the coal block allocation cases, asked the IOs to read the August 25 verdict of the apex court before filing any report in the matter before it.
"Before filing any report you must go through the Supreme Court's August 25 judgement. I am regularly hearing from the IOs that they have not read the whole judgement and have just given a cursory look to it. You must read it," the judge said.
The court gave the observation while hearing a case in which CBI had earlier filed charge sheet against Navbharat Power Pvt Ltd, its Managing Director and Vice-Chairman Harish Chandra Prasad and its Chairman P Trivikrama Prasad.
The apex court, on August 25, has held that all coal block allocations made since 1993 till 2010 before pre-auction era during the previous NDA and UPA regimes were done in illegal manner by an "ad-hoc and casual" approach "without application of mind".
During the hearing, the IO was told by the court that he shall inform the authorities to prepare a comprehensive report giving all the details related to the case.
The IO was also told that CBI should examine and analyse the alleged role of private parties and public servants in the case in an objective and prudent manner.
The judge fixed the matter for September 15 after special public prosecutor R S Cheema sought some time to go through the CBI's records to render assistance to the court.
The CBI had filed the charge sheet against Navbharat Power Pvt Ltd (NPPL) and its officials for offences under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating) of the IPC for allegedly misrepresenting facts, including inflated net worth, to acquire coal blocks.
CBI had also alleged that net worth of the firm applying for coal blocks was an important factor to determine its financial strength and NPPL had fraudulently claimed in its application form that it was supported by Globeleq Singapore Pvt Ltd, Navbharat Ventures Ltd and Mahalaxmi Group Ltd.
NPPL and its officials were named as accused by the agency for allegedly conspiring and cheating by purportedly misrepresenting facts to "embellish" its applications to get allotments between 2006 and 2009.
The FIR in the case was lodged after a preliminary enquiry was initiated by CBI on a reference by the CVC.
