Court rejects coal scam closure report

October 13, 2014 01:00 pm | Updated November 16, 2021 09:53 pm IST - New Delhi

Observing that the investigating officer first “decided the end result and then carried out investigation and prepared the final report”, a Special Court on Monday rejected the CBI plea to close a case of allocating a coal block illegally to Kamal Sponge Steel and Power Limited (KSSPL).

Rejecting the closure report and taking cognisance of the offence, Special Judge Bharat Parashar summoned former Coal Secretary H.C. Gupta, MD KSSPL Pawan Kumar Ahluwalia, chartered accountant Amit Goyal, former Joint Secretary of Coal Ministry K.S. Kropha, and former Director, CA-I Section in the Ministry, K.C. Samaria.

Describing the investigation as ‘sketchy’, Mr. Parashar said that, “No investigation worth the name has been carried out… In fact, the report appears to be more of a statement of plea of defence of the accused persons i.e. of M/S KSSPL and its directors and that of the officers of the Ministry of Coal rather than the report of any investigation,” Mr. Parashar further observed.

The court summoned all the accused under IPC Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) and 420 (cheating).

Top News Today

Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.