CBI to question UP Chief Secretary Jawed Usmani in Hindalco coal case

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has decided to question Jawed Usmani, the Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh and a former joint secretary in the Prime Minister's Office, regarding the controversial coal block allocation to Hindalco.

Usmani will be the second senior PMO official to be questioned by the CBI, as part of its ongoing probe into allocation of coal blocks, after the former Principal Secretary to the PM, TKA Nair, currently his Advisor, was questioned in February. Usmani, who is perceived to be close to Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and has served as his principal secretary, could be questioned “as a witness” in the next few days, a senior CBI official told ET on the condition of anonymity.

An IAS officer of the 1978 batch, Usmani had two stints in the PMO, one between 1996 and 2001 and 2004 to 2007, a period during which most of the controversial allocations took place. ET had reported on Monday that CBI has stepped up its probe into the Birla case with the aim of completing its investigation during the tenure of the UPA government.

Further, CBI has summoned PC Parakh, the former coal secretary and an accused in the Hindalco case, for questioning in Delhi on April 25 and served him a summon at his residence in Hyderabad at 7 pm last evening. However, Parakh has told the CBI that he cannot join the investigation on April 25 and is willing to travel to Delhi for questioning only post May 1.

CBI officials say they want to inform the Supreme Court of progress in this particular case at the next hearing on May 7. A status report with developments till April 30 has to be submitted before the apex court, which is monitoring the CBI probe.

There is also speculation of CBI having summoned Kumar Mangalam Birla, Hindalco’s chairman for questioning later this week. However, a top CBI official on the condition of anonymity insisted that no decision had been taken so far on questioning Birla while sources close to Hindalco dismissed the speculation as “manipulated rumours.”

CBI Director Ranjit Sinha did not comment when and whether Birla would be questioned but said that the agency has recommended departmental action against certain government officials for “systemic lapses” during the coal block allocation process while absolving them of any criminality or corruption in the closure reports.

“If there is no evidence, or the evidence is not enough to withstand legal scrutiny, CBI will close the matter. We will not harass or go after any innocent person. Also, closure of the case does not mean that we have taken no action. In all cases that have been closed lately by the CBI, we have sent self-contained notes to the coal ministry recommending departmental action be taken against official for systemic lapses,” Sinha told ET.

Former Coal Secretary HC Gupta, who had to resign last June from his position as member of the Competition Commission of India, has not been charged by CBI in any of the six cases finalised so far by the agency.

As the head of the 35th Screening Committee and the coal secretary between 2006 and 2009,Gupta's role was studied by the CBI in all six cases finalised so far. CBI Director Ranjit Sinha, however, declined to give Gupta a clean chit. “No person in the screening committee has a clean chit yet,” Sinha told ET.

The CBI official quoted earlier on condition of anonymity said the agency had not unearthed much criminality in the allocation of coal blocks. “There was lots of hype earlier but as the CBI has gone deeper into the matter, we have realised that there may be little criminality in the matter and it has more to do with bona-fide mistakes committed by government officials due to faulty systems put in place for coal block allotments,” the official said.