Slammed by the Supreme Court over the missing files related to the Colagate scam, officials of the coal ministry on Saturday held an elaborate meeting with the CBI sleuths to discuss issues related to

Against the backdrop of the Supreme Court’s directions, the CBI is preparing to give a fresh list of documents and files required by the agency from the coal ministry for completing its ongoing probe into the coalgate scam.

In the backdrop of the latest direction of the Supreme Court, the CBI is preparing to initiate proceedings under the Destruction of Evidence Act once the coal ministry files a complaint pertaining to

Maintaining that its demand for autonomy and more powers to its director are legitimate, the CBI in its affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on Tuesday reiterated that the chief of the agency should be given more administrative, financial and disciplinary powers to enable him to discharge his duties efficiently.

In the backdrop of the controversy surrounding the untraceable files related to its ongoing probe into the “Coalgate” scam, the CBI is all set to file a status report in the Supreme Court on Tuesday on the progress it has made in investigations into the scam so far.

Following CBI remin-ders, the matter was discussed at a high-level me-eting chaired by the additional secretary (coal) on July 16 at the coal ministry’s office in Shastri Bhavan, sources said.

The CBI probe into the coalgate scam has established that the Lohara East coal block in Maharashtra was allocated to a Nagpur-based company, Grace Industries Ltd, in June 2008 without the recommendati

The CBI is also seeking from the coal ministry certain documents related to the allocation of captive coal blocks to three Central public sector units (PSUs) as part of its probe into the Coalgate scam. The documents, which have been sought, are related to the allocations made before 2004, sources said.

The CBI, probing the Coalgate scam, suspects that around 157 private companies were allegedly eliminated irregularly to favour the ineligible beneficiary companies in the allocation of captive coal blocks.

A Delhi court has cleared the judicial requests of the CBI to be sent to the UK,
Italy and Tunisia for seeking details of certain companies based there as part of agency’s probe into Rs 3,600 crore AugustaWestland helicopter deal.