A Delhi court on Wednesday ordered framing of charges against former Coal Secretary H.C. Gupta, three co-accused and a company in a coal block allocation scam case.
Framing the charges, Special Judge Bharat Parashar said: “Prima facie charge for the offences under Section 120-B IPC (criminal conspiracy), 120-B/409/420 IPC (criminal conspiracy read criminal breach of trust by public servant and cheating) and 13 (1) (c) and 13 (1) (d) Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 is made out against all the five accused persons i.e. company Jas Infrastructure Capital Private Limited (JICPL), its director Manoj Kumar Jayaswal, and the three public servants i.e. accused H.C. Gupta, K.S. Kropha and K.C. Samria.’’
“Qua the substantive offences charge for the offences i.e. under Section 409 IPC and Section 13 (1) (c) Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 is also prima facie made out against accused H.C. Gupta. Charge for the substantive offence of cheating i.e. under Section 420 IPC is also made out against company JICPL and its director Manoj Kumar Jayaswal,’’ the Judge said.
Case adjourned
“As against the three public servants i.e. accused H.C. Gupta, K.S. Kropha and K.C. Samria, charge for the substantive offence u/s 13 (1) (d) Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 is also prima facie made out,’’ the judge said.
Later, the court adjourned the case to December 22 for formal framing of charges. The court also fixed April 17,18, 19, and 21 for recording of prosecution evidence in the case.
The case is related to the allocation of Mahuagarhi coal block in Jharkhand to the company by the Screening Committee headed by Mr. Gupta in an illegal manner. The CBI had earlier urged the court to close the case, citing lack of sufficient evidence.
However, the court had rejected the CBI plea and taken cognisance of the offences against all the five accused.
”Despite having garnered sufficient evidence against the accused persons which could have warranted filing of a charge-sheet against them.... CBI chose to file a closure report,” the court observed.
