The CBI has chargesheeted former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, former State chief secretary Ashok Kumar Basu, former Coal secretary Harish Chandra Gupta and four others in a coal scam case relating to allocation of coal blocks to Kolkata-based firm Vini Iron and Steel Udyog ltd.
Other names include promoter of Vini Iron and Steel Vaibhav Tulsiyan, then Section Officer of Mines Department Basant Kumar Bhattacharya and Director (Mines) Bipin Bihari Singh, and a private person, Vijay Joshi.
Vini Iron and Steel has also been named as an accused company in the chargesheet.
The accused company and individuals have been charged for criminal conspiracy, cheating and abuse of official position besides provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act for awarding the coal block to an ineligible company.
The agency filed its chargesheet before a designated court here after which Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar fixed December 22 for taking its cognizance.
The agency also told the court that seven others, Sanjeev Tulsyan, Prashant Tulsyan, Nisha Tulsyan, Vimal Kumar Tulsyan, Nirmala Tulsyan, Hemant Kumar Aggarwal and Navin Kumar Tulsyan, were not chargesheeted as they were not found involved in any manner in commission of the offences.
The case pertains to allocation of Rajhara North coal block in Jharkhand to Vini Iron and Steel Udyog ltd in which its directors and unknown public servants of the Coal Ministry, the Jharkhand Government and others were made accused in the FIR lodged by the CBI on September 3, 2012.
The agency also filed two separate chargesheets in coal scam cases this week involving Nagpur-based Grace Industries ltd and Jharkhand-based Jharkhand Ispat Pvt ltd.
In its chargesheet against Grace Industries ltd filed on Thursday, CBI has named the company and one of its directors Mukesh Gupta as accused for cheating. The case was registered on September 20, 2012.
However, one of its other directors, Seema Gupta, who was named as accused in the FIR in which the CBI had alleged that the firm had bagged the lohara East coal block in Maharashtra in 2008 by allegedly misrepresenting their net-worth, has not been chargesheeted.
The agency informed the court that no case was made out against any public servant in this case. The court has fixed December 22 for consideration of the chargesheet.
In its chargesheet against Jharkhand Ispat Pvt ltd filed on Wednesday, the CBI has named as accused the company’s directors RS Rungta and RC Rungta besides the company’s employee KR Kedia and a private person Naresh Mehta for criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery. The case pertains to allocation Pakri Barwadih and Gondal Para coal blocks situated in Jharkhand. The agency has registered the case on March 8, 2013.
The agency has also filed a closure report in the coal allocation case relating to Prakash Industries that was allocated the Fatehpur coal clock due insufficient prosecutable evidence.
With these three chargesheets, the agency has so far filed five final reports in coal scam cases. The agency has filed 36 cases in the coal scam and filed two closure reports. The designated court had returned five closure reports filed during CBI chief Ranjit Sinha’ tenure and ordered further investigation.