Court raps accused for contacting CBI judge

Jindal group has said sorry for behaviour

One of the accused in the coal scam case in which Congress leader Naveen Jindal and his company are named had approached the judge hearing the case more than once, the court said on Monday.

The judge said the accused was warned against such actions in future.

Special CBI judge Bharat Parashar said the lawyers appearing for all the accused that it has  “happened again” and he will mention it in the case record. “I am very sorry to say that with such senior lawyers appearing in the case, I had not expected it to happen,” he said, without disclosing the identity of the accused who had approached him.

Strong note

When a senior counsel gave an assurance on the issue, he said, “It has happened again.  If you want me to take it on record, I will do it. I wasn’t expecting this. With such senior lawyers, if this is happening without your knowledge, then I cannot say anything but it was not expected.”

Appearing for Jindal, senior lawyer Hariharan told the court that the Jindal Group management has taken a strong note of the issue and promised the judge that such behaviour will not recur.

“The management has taken a strong note of it and we are taking action. I assure you (judge) that it will not happen again. I got to know about it today morning,” he said.

In a statement, JSPL said, “neither our company nor our management or any person associated with our company have attempted to influence the court as being alleged in the media.”

“We are law abiding citizens, and have highest regard and respect for the judiciary. We have full faith in the judiciary and we are confident that we will come out clean during course of the trial, on merits of the case,” it added.

Rajeev Jain, Director of Jindal Realty Pvt Ltd, Girish Kumar Suneja, Director of Gagan Sponge Iron Pvt Ltd (GSIPL), are among the other accused in the case.

The case related to Jindal firm “illegal” acquiring Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block. The court had said that prima facie offences of criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust by public servant and cheating and relevant sections of Prevention of Corruption Act were made out against all the 15 accused.