And the coal blocks went to...

The companies: 'Strong links, false info'-The 5 companies whose premises the CBI has raided in connection with the allocations

The CBI probe into coal block allocations has reportedly found that companies that got the blocks, apart from having strong backing, had submitted false accounts and withheld information before the screening committee. Here are the five companies whose offices were raided at various locations, and what the CBI is probing them for.

Navbharat Power Private Limited, Hyderabad

Allotted coal blocks at Rampia, Orissa, in 2008. The company has been booked for forgery and criminal conspiracy along with its directors P Trivikrama Prasad and Y Harish Chandra Prasad. According to the CBI, the Prasad brothers owned two other companies, Navabharat Ventures and Mahalaxmi Energy. They set up Navbharat Power in 2006 and it was allotted the coal blocks. The FIR alleges that Navbharat sold its blocks to Essar Power at an inflated price and made a wrongful gain of Rs 200 crore.

The firm had allegedly furnished wrong information and inflated its net worth at the time of filing its application. Initially, the CBI says, it claimed to have entered into a memorandum of understanding for 90 days with a Singapore-based energy company, whose net worth it cited as around Rs 2.5 crore, but this MoU had expired by the time it filed the application. By then, it reportedly claimed, the project was being backed by another international energy firm, Suez Energy International, and its net worth was Rs 1 lakh crore. The CBI says it has found that Suez Energy was never associated with Navbharat.

Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Limited, Kolkata

Allotted coal blocks at Rajhara North, Jharkhand, in 2008. The company had been set up in 2004 by the Tulsyan group. When it first applied for the blocks, Vini Iron failed to clear the screening committee, the reason cited by the coal ministry being that "since the state government then headed by chief minister Arjun Munda has sent a dissent note on allocation to Vini Iron, the same could not be given". The company applied afresh and its luck changed along with the change of government in Jharkhand, once Madhu Koda had become the chief minister.

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