Coal Scam: HC Asks CBI to Respond to Appeal by Ex-coal Secy, Former Public Servant Challenging Three-year Jail

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought the response of the CBI on appeals by ex-coal secretary H C Gupta and former public servant K S Kropha challenging their conviction and three-year sentence in a case related to irregularities in coal block allocation in Chhattisgarh.

Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma admitted the appeals and said the two convicts, who were granted bail by the trial court, will remain out till the pendency of their appeals on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh each.

CBI counsel Tarannum Cheema accepts notice. The appeals are admitted for consideration and will come for hearing in due course, the judge said.

The trial court had in July convicted and awarded three-year jail terms to Gupta, Kropha and former senior public servant K C Samria in the case.

They were, however, granted bail by the trial court to enable them to challenge their conviction and punishment before the high court. Besides, the trial court had also convicted and sentenced to four-year imprisonment ex-Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda, his son Devender and businessman Manoj Kumar Jayaswal in the case.

After spending two days in jail, the Dardas and Jayaswal were granted interim bail by the high court on July 28. The high court had also issued notice and sought CBI’s reply on their appeals challenging the conviction and sentence and seeking suspension of their punishment.

The trial court had also imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh on JLD Yavatmal Energy Private Limited, which was also convicted in the case. It had imposed a fine of Rs 15 lakh each on the Dardas and Jayaswal. The other three convicts were directed to pay a fine of Rs 20,000 each.

During the hearing on Wednesday, the counsel for Gupta and Kropha argued there was no allegation of monetary gain to the accused and no quid pro quo in the case. The high court was also informed that both the convicts have already deposited the fine of Rs 20,000 each as imposed on them by the trial court.

On the application seeking suspension of sentence awarded to Gupta and Kropha, their counsel submitted they have been sentenced to three-year imprisonment and were earlier also convicted in other cases in which they remained on bail and were never arrested. In its verdict, the trial court had said, “The present case relates to allocation of a coal block.

The convicts had obtained the said block by committing cheating with the government of India. Prosecution is justified in saying that the loss to the nation was huge.”

In the 13th conviction in the coal scam, which rocked the erstwhile Manmohan Singh government, the trial court had on July 13 held the seven accused guilty under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The trial court had on November 20, 2014 refused to accept a closure report submitted by the CBI in the case and directed the agency to investigate it afresh, stating that Vijay Darda had “misrepresented” facts in his letters to then prime minister Manmohan Singh, who held the coal portfolio.

Vijay Darda, the chairperson of the Lokmat Group, had done so to secure the Fatehpur (East) coal block in Chhattisgarh for JLD Yavatmal Energy Private Limited, it had said.

The offence of cheating was committed by private parties in furtherance of a conspiracy hatched between them and public servants, it had said. The Lokmat Group is a multi-platform media company based in Maharashtra.

JLD Yavatmal Energy Private Limited was allotted the Fatehpur (East) coal block by the 35th Screening Committee.

The CBI had alleged in its FIR that JLD Yavatmal had wrongfully concealed the previous allocation of four coal blocks to its group companies between 1999 and 2005. However, in a closure report filed later, it said no undue benefit was extended to JLD Yavatmal by the coal ministry in the allocation of coal blocks.

The CAG had initially estimated that the coal scam caused a massive loss of Rs 10.6 lakh crore to the exchequer, but its final report tabled in Parliament put the figure at Rs 1.86 lakh crore.