A day after an impleadment application was filed in the Supreme Court in connection with the coal block allocation case, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has claimed that repeated attempts are being made by the Centre to try and rope in party chief Naveen Patnaik.
Speaking to ANI on Tuesday, BJD leader Pinaki Misra said: "Issue never came up when Patnaik ji was holding additional charge of the Coal Ministry, so he has no role to play in this. Repeated attempts are being made to try and rope him in by the Centre. It's being driven by unholy cash, generated by some vested interests attempting to play a dirty game."
The impleadment application sought direction for the CBI to conclude the investigation of a case in which an inquiry has been pending against Patnaik.
"It is a contemptible issue. The issue is 21 years old. It relates to a time when Naveen Patnaik was holding additional charge of Coal Ministry for about a couple of months only," Misra added.
The petitioner, Vaibhav Verma, told the court on Monday that Patnaik was questioned by the CBI.
"After interrogation of Patnaik, there is no reason for delay, however, as evident again there is delay of almost two years since interrogation of Patnaik and the CBI is yet to complete its investigation and has failed to take any concrete steps despite the fact that Supreme Court is monitoring the coal block cases," the petitioner said.
CBI is investigating the allocation of captive coal fields between 1993 and 2010 as part of a Supreme Court-monitored probe.