Files closure reports in two cases as agency fails to find ‘any prosecutable evidence’
The CBI has filed closure reports in two coal block allocation cases, giving a clean chit to Congress MP Vijay Darda and his company JlD Yavatmal Energy ltd as the agency “could not find any prosecutable evidence”.
Besides JlD Yavatmal, the agency also filed a closure report against JAS Infrastructure Capital Pvt ltd due to lack of evidence.
The CBI had booked these two companies in September 2012 and had also carried searches at various places besides questioning Darda, his son Devendra, brother and Cabinet Minister in Maharashtra Government Rajendra Darda, Manoj Jayaswal and others.
The agency had alleged that Darda and his company, which bagged Fatehpur East Coal Block in Chhattisgarh, had entered into a criminal conspiracy with Coal Ministry officials and provided wrong information in their applications while applying for coal blocks.
In its closure report on JlD Yavatmal Energy filed before a designated court here, the CBI concluded that during the course of investigations, “no evidence could be gathered to prove prima-facie commission of offence under Sections 120-B (Criminal Conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) against the company, its directors or any other public or private person. Further no evidence of any malafide association or quid pro quo between the accused company and public servant has surfaced during the course of investigation.”
In the other case, Nagpur-based businessman Manoj Jayaswal, who had close association with Dardas, his brother Anand Jayaswal and son Abhishek Jayaswal were named as accused in alleged irregularities by JAS Infrastructure and Power ltd. The company allegedly did not disclose to the Coal Ministry that it was in possession of six coal blocks allocated to it earlier fraudulently projected their financial status to be sound.