New Delhi, Oct 15 (IANS): The CBI Tuesday registered a case against former coal secretary P.C. Parekh and industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla over alleged irregularities in coal blocks allocation.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) booked Birla as a representative of Aditya Birla Group and his group company Hindalco, one of the biggest producers of primary aluminium in Asia.

"CBI registers fresh case in alleged irregularities in coal scam against the then coal secretary, M/s Hindalco, representative of M/s Aditya Birla Group, unknown persons and officials," an official said.

The official said a first information report (FIR) had been registered in the case and searches had taken place in Mumbai, Delhi, Secunderabad and Bhubaneswar.

The official said the case relates to allocation of Talabira-II coal block in Odisha, allocated in 2005 and is the 14th case in the coal-blocks allocation controversy.

In June, the CBI registered a case against former minister of state for coal Dasari Narayan Rao and industrialist Naveen Jindal.

The Supreme Court had Aug 29 asked the CBI to pick up speed in its investigations in the coal block controversy, saying its work was "in the first gear".

Perusing the status report, the court said that of the 169 companies being investigated for the allocation of 85 coal blocks between 2006 and 2009, the investigating agency completed probe in respect of only 37.

The court also fumed over the government's claim that a few files related to coal-block allocations from 1993 to 2009 were not "readily available" and asked if a police complaint was filed in this regard.