A Special CBI court on Friday ordered to frame charge against former Jharkhand Chief Minister and 14 others, including former coal minister Dasari Narayan Rao and industrialist and former Congress MP Naveen Jindal, in Amarkonda Murgadangal, in coal block allocation scam case.

The court said strong suspicion arises against all the accused persons warranting framing of charge against them for criminal conspiracy and other sections of IPC (Indian Penal Code) and Prevention of Corruption Act. However, formal framing of charges will be done later. “Trial proceedings in this case would be appropriate to be conducted after adjudication of this issue,” the court said. It will now hear the submissions of the CBI on May 11.

“Charges to be framed against all accused under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) read with 409 and 420 of IPC and under sections 13(1) (c), 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act,” the court said.

Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar in his order said, “It is clear that the present case involves a number of …issues which raises grave strong suspicion about the role played by various accused persons and the said issues cannot be adjudicated upon at the stage of charge itself while denying the prosecution a right to prove its case.”

“A bare perusal of the facts and circumstances of the case clearly suggest that though various accused persons acted at different times but they all were in tandem to favour Jindal Steel & Power ltd and Gagan Sponge Iron Pvt ltd in somehow procuring sole allocation of “Amarkonda Murgadangal Coal Block” in their favour. Accused persons were acting in pursuance to a criminal conspiracy whose sole objective was to accommodate Jindal Steel & Power ltd Gagan Sponge Iron Pvt. ltd in “Amarkonda Murgadangal Coal Block,” he further added.

Apart from Jindal, Koda and Dasarai Narayan Rao, the other accused are - Former Coal secretary HC Gupta, Rajeev Jain, Director of Jindal Realty Pvt ltd, Girish Kumar Suneja and Radha Krishna Saraf, Directors of GSIPl, Suresh Singhal, Director of New Delhi Exim Pvt ltd, K Ramakrishna Prasad, Managing Director of Sowbhagya Media ltd and chartered accountant Gyan Swaroop Garg. These accused are currently out on bail.

Besides, five firms -- JSPl, Jindal Realty Pvt ltd, Gagan Infraenergy ltd (formerly known as GSIPl), Sowbhagya Media ltd and New Delhi Exim Pvt ltd — are also accused in the case.

During its submission, the CBI said Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda hatched a criminal conspiracy with Naveen Jindal and arbitrarily changed the names of the companies on his own for making recommendation to Ministry of Coal for “Amarkonda Murgadangal Coal Block” on behalf of State of Jharkhand.