SPECIAL CBI COURT CONVICTS RANCHI FIRM, 4 EMPLOYEES IN 2003 COAL CORRUPTION CASE

NEW DELHI: A special court here on Tuesday convicted five persons in connection with an alleged coal fraud case related to Lalgarh (North) coal block allocated in 2003, saying they acted in a synchronised manner and conspired to cheat both the ministries of coal and steel to get the allocation in favour of their Ranchi-based company.

The court convicted Binay Prakash, then managing director of Domco Private Limited, Ranchi, Vasant Diwakar Manjrekar and Paramananda Mondal, both then directors of Domco Private Limited, Sanjay Khandewal, a chartered accountant in Kolkata and the company Domco Pvt. Ltd. in the coal scam case. The court will decide on the quantum of punishment on September 15.

Special Judge Arun Bhardwaj said, “They have acted in tandem to achieve their objective of securing allocation of Lalgarh (North) Coal Block in favour of A-1 (Ms Domco) by cheating Ministry of Steel (MoS), screening committee and MoC. Each one of them played his role. Lead role has been played by A-2 (Binay Prakash) being the Managing Director of the company who was corresponding with MoS and MoC making false submissions regarding availability of land with the company and financial preparedness to set up the plant,” the court said in its order.”

According to CBI, the case was registered on the basis of a preliminary enquiry initiated by the central agency on the directions received from the Chief Vigilance Commission related to coal blocks allocated during the period from 1993 to 2005.

During enquiry, it was revealed that the Lalgarh (North) Coal block was identified in favour of the company by the 19th Screening Committee and accordingly, the company was intimated by Ministry of Coal (MoC) through a letter dated November 24, 2003.