Kumar Mangalam Birla meets Chidambaram, says he has done nothing wrong

New Delhi, Oct 18: "I have done nothing wrong. I am not worried about the FIR," said billionaire Kumar Mangalam

after his meet with the Finance Minister on Friday evening.

Birla met P Chidambaram and discussed the FIR with the FM among other issues. The FIR was filed by the CBI against Birla, his company and former Coal Secretary PC Parakh in the coal block allocation scam.

He is accused of cheating and conspiracy in the scam and was alleged that he has shown undue favour in a coal block being allotted to Hindalco .

Birla also met the Revenue Secretary regarding the same.

India Inc on the other hand has warned the CBI that the FIR could dampen investor sentiment at a time of economic crisis in the country. Kris Gopalakrishnan, president of industry body Confederation of Indian Industries said that the CBI was right to proceed against any individual to ensure that the law of the land is preserved.

Naina Lal Kidwai, president of the industry body FICCI however said that business leaders cannot be made scapegoats on the grounds of mere suspicion and misconstructed actions.

Birla is accused of cheating and conspiracy in the scam

Along with Kidwai, there were others who came out in support of Birla. HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh said that Birla was straight as an arrow. "Our system is such that the biggest fraudsters go scott free, innocents are harassed."

Commerce minister Anand Sharma said that there was nothing wrong in corporate leaders pleading their cases before ministers.

Hindalco in a statement said that every process required for coal allocation in line with government regulations was completely followed.

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