Kumar Mangalam Birla meets Chidambaram

Hindalco chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, who was named in an FIR in the alleged coal block allocation scam, met Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday for a second time in less than three weeks. Mr Birla did not offer any comment on the meeting that lasted for more than 20 minutes.

The industrialist had met Mr Chidambaram earlier on October 18 after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) named him in the FIR.

"As of now, I am not worried about it. There is nothing wrong (that) has been done, so why should one worry?" he had told reporters when asked if the FIR would cast a shadow on the Aditya Birla Group's application for a bank licence.

The CBI had named Mr Birla and former Coal Secretary P C Parakh in its FIR charging them with criminal conspiracy and corruption in connection with alleged irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks eight years ago.

The investigating agency alleged in its FIR that after rejection of Hindalco's plea in 2005, Mr Birla wrote two letters and held a "personal meeting" with then Coal Secretary Mr Parakh, after which a decision was reversed and Hindalco was given a coal block that was meant for two PSUs -Mahanadi Coal Fields and Neyveli Lignite.