Coal scam: Madhu Koda, 7 others chargesheeted

New Delhi, December 12
Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, ex-Chief Secretary Ashok Kumar Basu, former Coal Secretary H C Gupta and five others have been chargesheeted by the CBI in a coal scam case relating to allocation of coal blocks to a Kolkata-based firm.

The chargesheet was filed two months after the court on September 4 had returned CBI’s final report filed in the case, observing that the probe agency had failed to give any plausible explanation to its queries.

The decision to file a chargesheet in the case came after the Supreme Court on December 8 had allowed CBI to file chargesheets or closure reports in coal scam cases in which it had earlier restrained the agency from doing so in view of allegations against its then Director Ranjit Sinha.

The chargesheet was filed before Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar, who fixed it for consideration on December 22 after the investigating officer (IO) said he will file the necessary documents within a couple of days.

Besides Koda and the two senior retired bureaucrats, the agency has named two serving public servants, Basant Kumar Bhattacharya and Bipin Bihari Singh, Director of Vini Iron Steel and Udyog Ltd Vaibhav Tulsyan and Vijay Joshi as accused in the case.

Kolkata-based Vini Iron Steel and Udyog Ltd has also been arrayed as an accused in the case.

All the accused have been chargesheeted for the offences punishable under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating) of the IPC and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. — PTI