Coal Scam: Supreme Court seeks list of ED, CBI officials involved in the probe

The Supreme Court today sought a list of all the officials from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) who are probing the coal block allocation scam..The ED had moved the Supreme Court last week seeking permission to transfer over 40 officials whose deputation tenure with the agency was to conclude..When the matter came up for hearing today before the Bench of Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose, the Court asked both the ED as well as the CBI, to furnish a list of those officers that were required to complete the probe. The Court also stated that the rest of the officers on deputation with the agencies can be relieved to be sent back to their home cadres. The Court will hear the matter next on September 27..The Supreme Court had earlier barred the transfer of any officials with the agencies probing the case without its prior permission..In 2014, the Supreme Court had cancelled 214 coal block allocations made since 1993 shortly after a judgment declaring all coal block allocations as illegal. The trial in the Coal Scam case is being monitored by a dedicated Bench of the Supreme Court since 2013. The Special Public Prosecutor in the matter was appointed by the Supreme Court. The last Special Bench for this case was headed by Justice AK Sikri until his retirement in March this year.