Coal Scam: Delhi Court summons industrialist and Congress leader Naveen Jindal

A Delhi court on Tuesday summoned industrialist and Congress leader Naveen Jindal along with 14 others for alleged money laundering in a case pertaining to irregularities in allocation of a Jharkhand coal block. All the accused in the case will appear before the Court on  October 15.

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Earlier, the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) interrogated Congress MP and industrialist Naveen Jindal in connection with the coal-gate scam. He was grilled for several hours by the CBI. Jindal was accused of cheating and criminal conspiracy in bagging the Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in West Bengal's Birbhum in 2008.

Coal allocation scam is a major political scandal concerning the Indian government's allocation of the nation's coal deposits to public sector enterprise (PSEs) and private companies. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) office accused the Government of India for allocating coal blocks in an inefficient manner during the period 2004–2009 which resulted in a CBI probe.

Here's is a timeline which unfolds the entire picture:

• 1973: Government of India takes charge of coal mining
• 1976: Government allows Private steel companies to own coal mines
• 1993: Power companies were allowed to own captive mines
• 1993-2005: 41 private and 29 government companies got the license
• 2004: UPA govt decides to allot more captive mines to private and state-owned players after realizing that Coal India wouldn’t be able to produce enough to meet demands 
• 2006-2009: License for 75 blocks distributed to private companies and other 70 to Government