CBI raids into the business premises and private residencies of investors and private companies which were involved in coal tenement deals has spread blame of wrongdoing well beyond the country’s coal ministry.

Indian media reports on the ongoing investigations reveals that many of the accused parties are related to each other both as family members and business or governmental colleagues.

Today, the Hindustan Times declared that the state of Maharashtra’s embattled education minister was the “first casualty of the Coalgate scam”

In one of the five formal complaint documents offered by the CBI, Rajendra Darda was accused of criminal conspiracy and violation of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Darda is the brother of media mogul and congressman Vijay Darda and the uncle of Devendra Darda, both of whom were also implicated in the CBI’s investigation.

Vijay Darda has been linked to two of the companies raided by the CBI earlier this week.

Another CBI raid targeted the Tulsyan family which owns Indian coal company Armoa Coke and has been connected to Vijay Joshi, a close aide of former chief minister Madhu Koda and stakeholder in two iron and steel companies.

“We have managed to get some incriminating documents from [Joshi’s] office,” a CBI source was quoted as saying by the Times of India.

“The documents show that he has not only been misusing the coal block, but also coal linkage.”

Tuesday, the intensifying imbroglio led to the streets as 7000 congress workers clashed with police after a traditionally peaceful form of protest known as a “gherao” became aggravated in the central state of Chhattisgarh.

“Congress had announced to gherao the chief minister’s residence, following which, security in the area was beefed up,” the district police superintendent told the Press Trust of India.

“However, around 2000 workers started pelting stones and breaking barricades, in which two policemen were injured.”

Last month, hundreds of protestors were baton-charged by police during a demonstration in New Delhi when the group began marching toward the residences of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and congress leader Sonia Gandhi.

India’s national auditor said last month that the government lost $US37 billion in revenues due to a failure to competitively auction state coal licences.

The report reflected a reduction of the $210 billion loss estimated to have been squandered by the coal ministry in a leaked audit last March.

The reduction has been attributed to the accrual of government mining profits since the licence allocations were taken into consideration.