Coal scam: Delhi court acquits ex-coal Secretary HC Gupta, 2 others

A special CBI court has acquitted former coal Secretary HC Gupta, ex-Joint Secretary (coal) KS Kropha and then Director KC Samaria on Friday in a coal scam case while it convicted JAS Infrastructure Capital Ltd and its then director Manoj Kumar Jayaswal for cheating and criminal conspiracy.

Advertisement

Special Judge Sanjay Bansal announced the verdict in connection with Mahugarhi Coal Block in Jharkhand. The judge will hear the argument on sentence on July 8.

"This is the 19th conviction in coal block allocation cases investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation. Initially, the CBI had filed final report (closure) in the case on November 20, 2014," the CBI spokesperson said in a statement.

The special court had previously taken cognisance and framed charges against JAS Infrastructure Capital Pvt Ltd, Manoj Kumar Jayaswal, HC Gupta, KS Kropha and KC Samaria.

"The allegations in the case were that the accused private persons, namely the promoters of JAS Infrastructure Capital Pvt Ltd, had made false and misleading claims regarding the financial net worth of the company," the CBI said.

They further misrepresented the appraisal and syndication of debt by financial institutions, with a view to securing the wrongful allocation of a coal block, the spokesperson said.

The company, it was alleged, "deliberately concealed" material facts concerning the previous allocation of coal blocks to other group or associate companies in the application and feedback forms.

"The company had also dishonestly projected the net worth of unrelated third-party companies —Inertia Iron & Steel Industries Pvt Ltd and IL&FS — as its own, both in its application and during the presentation made before the screening committee for the allocation of Mahugarhi Coal Block," the statement said.

The CBI examined 18 prosecution witnesses in support of its case.