Tycoon meets Chidambaram after PM tells govt to assuage hurt India Inc.
Three days after the CBI lodged a case against Kumar Mangalam Birla in connection with the coal scam, the industrialist met Union finance minister P Chidambaram and top finance ministry officials, including revenue secretary Sumit Bose, in Delhi on Friday.
The meeting between Chidambaram and Birla lasted for about half-an-hour in which the Aditya Birla Group chairperson told the finance minister that he has done nothing wrong. “I am not worried about the FIR... I have done nothing wrong but I cannot comment on it now. Life moves on,” Birla said after coming out of Bose’s chamber.
Chidambaram was in Washington DC to participate in the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund when the CBI filed the FIR. He met Birla within 24 hours of resuming office on Thursday. The move is seen as the government’s gesture to assuage Indian Inc which is on the boil because of the CBI’s action. Sources in the North Block said it is the PM’s decision to soothe ruffled feathers.
“It is at the behest of the PM that Chidambaram and commerce minister Anand Sharma are reaching out to industrialists,” a source told dna. The decision to talk to Birla and calm down Indian Inc was conveyed by PM Manmohan Singh to the two ministers at the banquet hosted for the Hungarian PM at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Thursday.
Finance ministry officials said Birla clarified his stand on Hindalco to Bose. “He spoke about the Rs25 crore recovered by the CBI from Hindalco’s Delhi office,” the official said. The CBI booked Birla for alleged corruption by his group company Hindalco during the allocation of Orissa’s Talabira II block. The block was allocated to it in November 2005.
‘Done nothing wrong’
KM Birla met P Chidambaram for 30 minutes and said he has done nothing wrong and that he was not worried about the FIR.
The 14th FIR filed by the CBI in the coal scam accused him of criminal conspiracy.
India INC has extended its support to Birla with Adi Godrej and HSBC India head Naina Lal Kidwai backing Hindalco.
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