'Rs 25 crore recovered from Hindalco office'

CBI has referred the matter to the Income Tax Department for a parallel probe

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said it recovered Rs 25 crore worth of unaccounted money from Hindalco’s Delhi office during the raids conducted on Tuesday. Having registered a first information report (FIR) against the company and Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla for wrongful coal block allocation, CBI has now referred the matter to the Income-Tax Department for a parallel probe.

“We are hearing about cash for the first time from the media. We have to find out more on this (CBI claim on cash),” said a company spokesperson.

The investigating agency has alleged that former coal secretary P C Parakh, also an accused in the case, had abused his official position to accommodate Hindalco in the Talabira-II coal block in Jharsuguda district of Odisha. In its FIR, CBI has stated that as the chairman of the 25th screening committee, Parakh overturned his own decision to allot coal block to Neyveli Lignite, after a meeting with Birla.

The coal block, according to CBI, was meant only for public sector companies but was later shared by Hindalco and Neyveli Lignite. ”What prompted him (Parakh) to change his own decision?” a senior CBI official asked.

The CBI would now summon officials “relevant to the case” for questioning and scrutinising the “incriminating evidence” procured from the raids in Mumbai, Bhubaneshwar, Delhi and Secunderabad.