Providing the Congress-led UPA Government with much-needed support on the coal block allocation issue, former CAG Vinod Rai said that the allotment of a coal block in to Hindalco was `justified'.

In a recent interview, Mr. Rai said that the coal block Talabira allocated to Hindalco in Odisha was not mentioned in the final report of CAG because nothing wrong was found in its allocation.

Speaking on the topic, he said, "The CAG also had all the information and correspondence on the Hindalco case, but it did not figure in our final report. We did not put it in because we found all the justifications."

It may be noted here that Mr. Rai was the chief of the national auditor when the irregularities in coal block allocations were first found. The CAG estimated that irregularities in coal block allocations robbed the exchequer of nearly Rs 1.8 lakh crore.

Mr. Rai's comments surfaced nearly a week after the CBI registered an FIR against Hindalco and its chief Kumar Mangalam Birla as well as former coal secretary PC Parakh, accusing them of corruption and criminal conspiracy in the alleged scam.

Meanwhile, the CBI has asked the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to furnish all records related to the allocation of coal block allotted to Kumar Mangalam Birla's Hindalco firm.