Odisha BJP legislator indicted in coal scam

A special CBI court in New Delhi framed charges against former Union minister of state for coal, Dilip Ray, for his alleged involvement in coal block allocation case.

Mr Ray, who is currently BJP MLA from Rourkela, was present in the court during framing of the charges against him.

The court also framed charges against three other accused involved in the scam, including then additional secretary Pradip Kumar Banerjee, former adviser (projects) in the coal ministry, Nitya Nand Gautam, and Castron Technologies Limited and director Mahendra Kumar Agarwalla, reports said.

The hearings in the case would commence from August, reports added.

The case pertains to the alleged irregularities in the Brahmadiha coal block in Jharkhand to Castron Technologies Limited in 1999 while Mr Ray was a minister in the erstwhile NDA government.

“While I was the minister, MP P.K. Agarwal had brought the coal block allocation proposal. I had sent it to the ministry for reexamination. The screening committee recommends allotment of coal blocks where I wasn’t a member of it then. The CBI has wrongly mentioned it as a recommendation from me. It was political vendetta of the UPA,” Mr Ray was earlier quoted as saying.