The CBI will file a closure report on the case against Birla and former coal secretary P.C. Parakh very soon, CBI spokeswoman Kanchan Prasad told the media.
“Obviously if a closure report is being filed there’s no criminality (on the part of Birla and Parakh),” she said.
India’s federal auditor had alleged that the government’s under-priced sale of coal blocks may have cost the exchequer revenues of $33 billion, although industry watchers and the previous government had cast doubts on the figure.
Indian media has dubbed the controversy as “coalgate”.
The CBI filed the case against Birla and Parakh late last year in relation to a block allocated in 2005 to Hindalco Industries, part of the $40 billion Aditya Birla Group.
Kumar Mangalam Birla is the chairman of the group. Birla had denied all allegations of wrong doing.