Kumar Mangalam Birla, one of the richest industrialists in India, has been charged with conspiracy and cheating to land two coal blocks in Odisha in 2005 for his firm, aluminium-maker Hindalco. The company has issued a statement claiming "every process required for coal allocation was in line with government regulations completely followed".
Statement from Hindalco:
This relates to media reports on an FIR naming Hindalco and our Chairman on the coal issue. Apparently, this seems to be part of a larger case entailing coal allocation to companies, and being one of the companies, we are being investigated also.
We wish to state unambiguously that we have followed every process required for allocation of coal completely, as stipulated by the Government policy.