Former Coal Secretary P. C. Parakh on Wednesday said if the Central Bureau of Investigation contends there was a conspiracy in allocation of coal blocks in Odisha, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who as Coal Minister took the final decision, should be seen as a co-conspirator.

The CBI had on Tuesday filed a case against Aditya Birla group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla and Parakh for allegedly entering into a criminal conspiracy to facilitate allocation of a coal block in Odisha to the group’s subsidiary Hindalco. Describing the CBI’s FIR as “unfortunate”, Parakh said: “I see this issue as a demoralising move for the civil service. This should not have happened. I believe that there is no case for the CBI. We will wait and see what it has to say when it files the charge-sheet,” he told Business Line .

Defends Govt decision

Parakh said, “There was nothing wrong with the Government decision to allocate coal blocks. I am not sure why the CBI thought that this was a conspiracy.”

He contended that if the CBI believes it is a conspiracy, then there are other members too, in it.

And when the CBI believes that Birla and “myself are conspirators, then why did they not think of the Prime Minister as a co-conspirator, then everyone is part of the conspiracy,” he said.

PTI adds: The BJP demanded that Manmohan Singh resign in the wake of Parakh’s charge.

“Today a surprising development has taken place where in a bizarre instance an FIR has been lodged against the officer who suggested that the auction route should be adopted in coal block allocations and even prepared a Cabinet note on it,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.

“Right from Day 1, BJP has been demanding the Prime Minister’s resignation as he was the then Coal Minister under whose signature and seal the monumental scam happened.... BJP reiterates its demand for his immediate resignation because the buck stops with him,” Javadekar said.

> rishikumar.vundi@thehindu.co.in

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