Court convicts former coal secretary in coal scam case
A special court on Friday convicted former coal secretary HC Gupta in a coal scam case.
Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar also convicted the coal ministry’s then joint secretary KS Kropha and then director KC Samaria besides others in the case pertaining to alleged irregularities in allocation of Thesgora-B Rudrapuri coal block in Madhya Pradesh to Kamal Sponge Steel and Power Ltd (KSSPL). The court will pronounce the order on quantum of sentence on May 22.
Besides Gupta, Kropha and Samaria, the court also convicted the firm KSSPL and its managing director Pawan Kumar Ahluwalia.
The court has acquitted chartered accountant Amit Goyal in the case.
The CBI had alleged that the application filed by KSSPL for the coal block was incomplete and was supposed to be rejected by the ministry as it was not in accordance with the guidelines issued.
The agency had claimed that the firm had misrepresented its net worth and existing capacity, adding that state government had also not recommended the firm for the allocation of any coal block.
The accused, however, had denied the allegations during the arguments.
Around eight different chargesheets have been filed against Gupta and proceedings are going on individually.
The Supreme Court had recently dismissed his plea seeking joint trial in all these cases.
The trial and probe in coal scam cases had started over allegations of widespread irregularities in the allotment of coal blocks.
The Supreme Court had cancelled 214 such coal block allocations in September 2014.
Till now, three cases have been decided with the first conviction order passed in March, 2016 in a case pertaining to irregularities in allotment of a coal block in Jharkhand to a firm Jharkhand Ispat Pvt Ltd (JIPL) whose two directors RS Rungta and R C Rungta were awarded four year jail term.
The second conviction followed four months later in July in which Rathi Steel and Power Ltd (RSPL) and three of its officials — managing director Pradeep Rathi, chief executive officer Udit Rathi and AGM Kushal Aggarwal — were held guilty by the court for “deceiving” the government by making false representation even before then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The Enforcement Directorate has registered a case of money laundering against Karti Chidambaram, the son of former Union finance minister P Chidambaram, after taking cognisance of an FIR filed by the CBI in connection with the alleged irregularities relating to foreign direct investments received by INX Media in 2007.
The case was registered on Thursday against Karti, who is believed to have left India on the same day. There is, however, no lookout circular against Karti or an official ban on his travel, officials told the Hindustan Times.
Agency officials said the ED will probe the allegation that Karti received payments in lieu of the “services” rendered to INX Media by his company Chess Management Services.
According to the CBI, Karti used his influence in the finance ministry to help INX Media get an approval to receive foreign investments from three Mauritius-based investors.
The investigation agency said INX Media allegedly received approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board for ₹4.62 crore investment but got ₹305 crore by sale of shares at a premium of ₹800 per share instead of ₹10 as mentioned by the media group in their application.