Coal scam case: Delhi court sentences former Steel Ministry Executive Secy to 3-yr jail

New Delhi, Aug 22 (IANS) A Delhi court on Tuesday sentenced a former Executive Secretary, JPC (Joint Plant Committee), Ministry of Steel, to three-year jail term in a coal scam case related to alleged irregularities in the allocation of a coal block in Chhattisgarh.

In the 14th sentence in the coal scam, Special Judge Arun Bhardwaj said Gautam Kumar Basak  is found guilty of corruption in the allocation of Vijay Central Coal Block, and also imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on him.

According to the prosecution, an allegation was made against Prakash Industries Ltd., which had applied for the coal block in January 2007, that it had furnished false information about its capacity.

The Ministry had directed Basak to ascertain the truth of the allegation. The Steel Ministry official, according to the prosecution, submitted a false report in 2008 supporting the claims made by the company.

The company and its director were earlier discharged by Delhi High Court in the case. The CBI's appeal against the High Court order is currently pending before the Supreme Court. The CBI was represented by its Deputy Legal Advisor Sanjay Kumar in the trial court.

Former coal secretary H.C. Gupta and former IAS officer K S Kropha have challenged the appeal in the high court against their conviction and jail terms.

A bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma issued notice and said that both the appellants will remain out on bail till the matter stands disposed of.

The judge said that the appeals will be listed in due course along with the appeals moved by the other convicts - former Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda, his son Devender Darda and JLD Yavatmal Energy Pvt Ltd's Director Manoj Kumar Jayaswal. 

On July 28, the high court granted interim bail to the Dardas and Jayaswal, who were handed four-year jail terms.

The Delhi court had awarded four-year jail terms to them while Gupta, Kropha and K.C. Samaria were handed a three-year imprisonment. 

On November 20, 2014, the court had rejected the closure report submitted by the CBI in this case. The court had directed the probe agency to initiate a fresh investigation, citing that the former MP Darda had "misrepresented" facts in letters addressed to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who also held the Coal portfolio.

According to the court, Vijay Darda, who is the Chairperson of the Lokmat Group, resorted to such misrepresentations in order to obtain the Fatehpur (East) coal block in Chhattisgarh for JLD Yavatmal Energy.

The court had ruled that the act of cheating was carried out by private entities as part of a conspiracy involving both private parties and public servants.

JLD Yavatmal Energy was granted the Fatehpur (East) coal block by the 35th Screening Committee. Initially, the CBI alleged in its FIR that JLD Yavatmal had unlawfully concealed the previous allocation of four coal blocks to its group companies between 1999 and 2005. However, the agency later filed a closure report, stating that no undue benefit had been granted to JLD Yavatmal by the Coal Ministry during the coal block allocation.