Former Coal Secretary P C Parakh today appeared before CBI officials for questioning in connection with the coal block allocation case.

The CBI had served a fresh summons to the former IAS officer seeking his appearance today. Parakh had expressed inability to appear before the probe agency officials on April 25.

Parakh, who retired as Coal Secretary in December 2005, has been accused of abusing his official position to grant a coal block to Hindalco, an Aditya Birla Group company.

CBI had last year registered a case against Parakh, Birla and unnamed officials of Hindalco and the Coal Ministry.