Coal scam: Special Court pulls up CBI for not providing documents to accused

A special court on Monday pulled up the CBI for not supplying documents to the accused in a coal scam case, involving industrialist Naveen Jindal, as directed by it in its last order.

Special judge Bharat Parashar adjourned the matter for scrutiny of documents to April 10 in the case pertaining to the allocation of the Urtan North Coal block in Madhya Pradesh.

“Comply with the direction of the court. Adjourned for scrutiny of documents on April 10,? the judge said.

The court had on January 15 directed the CBI to hand over some documents filed, along with the charge sheet, to industrialist Naveen Jindal and others.

The court was hearing a matter pertaining to the allocation of Urtan North coal block in Madhya Pradesh where the offences of “cheating” and “criminal conspiracy” were “prima facie” made out against the accused.

Besides Jindal, the other accused in the case include Jindal Steel and Power Ltd’s (JSPL) former Director Sushil Maroo, former Deputy MD Anand Goyal and CEO Vikrant Gujral.

Jindal is named as accused, along with former Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao and former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, in another case pertaining to alleged irregularities in allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand.

According to the CBI charge sheet in this case, the accused had misrepresented facts in its January 2007 application before the Screening Committee, responsible for recommending coal block allocation, for obtaining the Madhya Pradesh coal block and hence cheated the Coal Ministry to get wrongful gains.

The ministry had issued the allocation letter to the firm in October 2009.

The probe agency has named 64 persons as prosecution witnesses to prove its case besides annexing 60 documents in its charge sheet.

The charge sheet has said that in the feedback form, the firm misrepresented or made false claims on two counts—that it had already acquired 964 acres of land for its Jharkhand- based Patratu project and that it had placed orders for equipment for its Odisha-based Angul project for Rs 4,340 crore.