3 years jail for ExJ’khand CM in coal scam

NEW DELHI: Former Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda and ex-coal secretary HC Gupta were sentenced to three years imprisonment by a special court in a case of coal block allocation scam. The court also imposed a fine of ~25 lakh on Koda and ~1 lakh on Gupta. Koda will appeal in the Delhi HC.

NEW DELHI: Former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda and former coal secretary HC Gupta were on Saturday sentenced to three years imprisonment by a special court here in a case of coal block allocation scam.

Besides the jail term, the special court also imposed a fine of ₹25 lakh on Koda and ₹1 lakh on Gupta. Koda said he will appeal against the sentence in Delhi high court. “I was hopeful that I would get relief... This is disheartening. This was court’s verdict so I won’t comment on it but I I will challenge this order in the high court after reading the full judgement soon,” he said.

Former Jharkhand chief secretary AK Basu and Vijay Joshi, a close aide of the then chief minister, were also awarded jail term of three years for indulging in corrupt practices and hatching criminal conspiracy in allocation of Rajhara North coal block in Jharkhand to a Kolkata-based private company, Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Ltd (VISUL).

Special judge Bharat Parashar convicted the private firm and imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh on it.

The convicts including Koda, however, were granted statutory bail for a period of two months to enable them to file appeals in the Delhi High Court challenging the conviction and the jail term.

The CBI had said that the firm had applied for allocation of Rajhara North coal block on January 8, 2007. It had said although the Jharkhand government and steel ministry did not recommend VISUL’s case for coal block allocation, the 36th Screening Committee recommended the block to the accused firm. AGENCIES