COALGATE: CBI TO SEND JUDICIAL REQUEST TO MALAYSIAN GOVT

In a first instance of the Central Bureau of Investigation ( CBI) seeking details from a foreign country in its coal scam probe, the agency is set to send a Letter Rogatory (judicial request), to Malaysia to procure details on a Malaysian firm that was the partner of an Indian company accused of landing a coal block in Chhattisgarh despite its ineligibility.

“We will send a Letters Rogatory to Malaysia soon to request for details on a firm located there. The Malaysian firm had an agreement with an accused Indian firm that resorted to misrepresentations and concealment to get the allocation of a coal block in Chhattisgarh,” said a CBI source.

In its first information report (FIR) filed by the CBI in 2012, the agency had accused the Indian firm of inflating its net worth by showing an agreement with a Malaysian firm to escape getting disqualified for the coal block’s allocation due to ineligibility.

According to the source, the Malaysian firm had only given an Expression of Interest to enter into an agreement with the Indian firm but the latter allegedly projected the former’s net worth as its own to get a Chhattisgarh coal block in 2008.

The details may prove to be the key in establishing the case against the Indian firm, according to the source.

The LR, to be sent via judicial authorities, will be the agency’s first in its scam probe.