CBI Director Alok VermaThe order issued Friday by officiating CBI Director M Nageswara Rao to reverse all decisions taken after Tuesday has negated the file signed by then Director Alok Verma in a coal scam case, allegedly involving a senior IAS officer.
The CBI order declared four office orders issued on Wednesday and Thursday, after Verma was reinstated by the Supreme Court as CBI Director, as non-est (does not exist). It said, “consequently, all actions in pursuance thereof by all concerned are also declared hereby as null and void”.
This nullified one of the files signed by Verma on Wednesday which could have led to the chargesheeting of Bhaskar Khulbe, a West Bengal cadre IAS officer, in a coal scam case. Currently Secretary to the Prime Minister, Khulbe is alleged to have been involved in the allotment of coal blocks to Ramsarup Lohh Udyog Limited in the Moira-Madhujore block of West Bengal.
Khulbe was then Advisor, Industries to the West Bengal government. His name had figured in CBI investigations in the coal scam and had parallels with the case of former Union Coal Secretary H C Gupta.
Gupta was made an accused by CBI for offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and Indian Penal Code, including cheating, criminal conspiracy and criminal misconduct in a coal block allocation case. An accused in 12 cases, he has been convicted in three cases and sentenced to prison terms of two, three and three years.
The CBI filed chargesheets in connection with alleged irregularities in 40 cases of coal block allocations. In 2014, the Supreme Court had approved the appointment of a special judge to exclusively deal with all coal scam cases.
