New Delhi, Sep 4: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Tuesday filed cheating cases against five private companies allocated coal blocks and also conducted raids at 30 locations in 10 cities, an official said.
The CBI registered the first set of first information reports (FIRs) in alleged irregularities in the allocation and use of coal deposits. Teams from the agency are conducting raids in 10 cities, including Kolkata, Patna, Hyderabad, Dhanbad, Nagpur, Mumbai and Delhi.
"During the preliminary inquiry, we found irregularities against five companies and registered the first set of FIRs against them today. It may also cover eight to 10 more companies," a senior CBI official told IANS.
The five companies are AMR Iron and Steel, Vini Iron and Steel, Nav Bharat Power, JLD Yavatmal Energy and JAS Infrastructure Capital.
The country's official auditor, Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), in a report had pointed towards lack of transparency in the allocation of coal blocks to private players resulting in a presumptive loss of a Rs.1.85 lakh crore ($37 billion) to the exchequer as on March 11 last year.
