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The Special Court has ordered the framing of charges under various sections against M/s Contisteel Ltd (a group company of Rathi Super Steel Ltd.), HC Gupta, the then Secretary, Ministry of Coal, and KS Kropha, the then Joint Secretary, Ministry of Coal, in a coal block allocation case relating to the allocation of coal blocks Hutar and Hurilong situated in the state of Jharkhand.
Formal charges will be framed against the accused persons on March 5, 2024. Sanjay Kumar, Additional Legal Advisor, CBI. The Special Judge Sanjay Bansal, in an order passed on February 6, 2024, held that a case for framing charge u/s 120-B r/w Sec. 420 IPC and Sec. 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d)(iii) PC Act is made out against all the accused persons. Further, a charge for substantive offence under Section 420/511 IPC is made against the company. Further, a charge for substantive offence under sections 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d)(iii) PC Act is made out against HC Gupta and KS Kropha. The court, in order stated that, It is common knowledge that conspiracies are hatched insecrecy. The chronology of events clearly show that there was co-relation and coherence in the acts/omissions of the accused persons and thus indicate presence of a conspiracy. At this stage, this view is justified. The Ministry of Coal, government of India was cheated and offer letter dated August 5, 2008, for allocation of coal blocks was obtained. Public servants provided undue benefit to the private accused persons. This is a fit case where charge for conspiracy is also made out, stated Court. It was submitted before the Court that Gupta and Kropha did not follow the guidelines published and did not ensure application of interse merits and ineligible company was recommended for allocation of coal blocks. It was also submitted to the Court that H C Gupta also mislead the then Prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh that this company has been strongly recommend by the state of Jharkhand whereas state of Jharkhand had opposed allocation of coal blocks to this company. (ANI)
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