The CBI on Saturday registered a case against former Union Minister Prem Chand Gupta, a confidant of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo lalu Prasad, and his son for alleged criminality in falsifying records in getting a coal block in Maharashtra.
The case was registered against Gupta, a sitting Rajya Sabha member and former Minister of State for Corporate Affairs from 2004-2009, and his son Gaurav after the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) told the CBI that a case was made out against the former Minister, sources said. The CBI had earlier sought a closure in the matter.
The Supreme Court is monitoring the probe into the scam and asked the CVC to take a relook into the enquiries that were sought to be closed by the CBI. This is the 24th case registered by the agency in connection with the coal block allocation scam.
The accused company IST Steel and Power allegedly falsified records before the screening committee that it had spent Rs100 crore on power plants but a close scrutiny of the documents of the company showed that only Rs80 crore had been spent, the sources said. The company is alleged to have furnished documents with bogus in its bid to meet the basic eligibility for getting a coal block.
IST Steel and Power is an associate company of the IST Group which is owned and managed by Gupta’s sons Gaurav and Mayur. The company was allocated the Dahegaon/Makardhokra IV coal block in Maharashtra. The company had applied for a coal block on January 12, 2007 and was allocated one on June 17, 2009.Gupta, an RJD leader,was the Minister of State for Corporate Affairs in UPA-I Government.