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Coalscam: Ex-Coal Secy awarded two year imprisonment

Last Updated 22 May 2017, 13:43 IST
Former Coal Secretary H C Gupta was on Monday awarded two-year jail term and a fine of Rs one lakh by a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court for irregularities in allocating a coal block in Madhya Pradesh to a private firm.
 
Two other former senior officials K S Kropha and K C Samaria, who were posted in Ministry of Coal at the time of allocation, were also sentenced to two years imprisonment and fine of Rs one lakh each. With this, the trio have become the first public servants to be sentenced in a coal scam case, which unravelled during the UPA regime.
 
The CBI had sought a seven year sentence for Gupta for cheating and criminal conspiracy in allocation of a coal block.
 
The court also imposed a penalty of Rs one crore on Madhya Pradesh-based Kamal Sponge Steel and Power Ltd (KSSPL), which was the beneficiary of the allocation of Thesgora-B/Rudrapuri coal block.
 
KSSPL's Managing Director Pawan Kumar Ahluwalia was sentenced to three-years in jail and a fine of Rs 30 lakh for misrepresenting facts in its application before the Ministry of Coal.
 
All convicts were, however, granted bail and now will be able to challenge their sentence in the High Court. The court had on May 19 convicted all the five but acquitted Chartered Accountant Amit Goyal in the case.
 
The CBI had in October, 2012 lodged an FIR in the case but on March 27, 2014 it filed a closure report. The court rejected the closure report on October 13, 2014 and summoned Gupta and others as accused.
 
Three are 10 more coal cases pending against Gupta and the proceedings are going on individually. The Supreme Court had earlier dismissed his plea seeking a joint trial in all these cases.
 
The court had held Gupta, Kropha and Samria for "criminal conspiracy" with KSSPL and Ahluwalia to commit "criminal misconduct " for procuring coal block allotment in favour of KSSPL.
 
Gupta, according to the court, made "dishonest misrepresentation" before the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was handling the Ministry of Coal.
 
The former Prime Minister had no reason to presume that Gupta recommended a non-compliant private firm for coal block allocation in Madhya Pradesh, the court has said.
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(Published 22 May 2017, 10:35 IST)

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