A Special Court on Friday convicted former Coal Secretary HC Gupta and former Joint Secretary KS Kropha for criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating, and corruption in a coal scam case related to irregularities in allocation of a coal block in Maharashtra.
Special Judge Arun Bhardwaj also convicted Grace Industries Ltd (GIL) and its Director Mukesh Gupta for criminal conspiracy and cheating, and posted the matter for August 4, when the court will hear augments on the quantum of sentence to be awarded to the convicts.
The case relates to the allocation of the Lohara East coal block. This is the 11th conviction in coal scam cases secured by the prosecution. The convict persons face a maximum of seven-year jail term while the company faces the imposition of the fine.
Gupta was earlier convicted in three other coal scam cases and his appeal against those convictions is pending before Delhi High Court. He is currently on bail, along with other convict persons in the case.
In its judgment on Friday, the court formed to handle all coal scam related cases noted that Gupta made three misrepresentations in discussions with Principal Secretary to the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In the first instance, he gave a false impression that Screening Committee's decision to allocate coal block among competing applicants was based on inter-se priority, the court said adding that again, he concealed information that GIL's application was not sent to the Ministry of Steel (MoS) for its mandatory comment.
He further made misrepresentations regarding recommendations for the company's power plant. Gupta, then Coal Secretary was the chairperson of the then Screening Committee to allot the coal blocks.
The court noted that the secretary had received a complaint letter making serious allegations against the accused company which were supported by documentary evidence. “In ordinary circumstances, it should have set alarm bells ringing. But nothing of the sort happened. The letter was given a quiet burial in MoC,” the judge noted. The judge further noted that excess coal allocation was made in favour of GIL in spite of the fact that the excess allocation was brought to the notice of Gupta and Kropha by one Murli Agro Products Limited. Regarding the company, the court observed that it made false claims before the Screening Committee about its net worth and the existing production capacity of its sponge iron plant.
“GIL, under signatures of Mukesh Gupta, had given false information to MoC as well as Screening Committee that it has installed infrastructure for five kilns and production is pending for want of coal/ it has got two kilns under production and three kilns under installation,” the court said, adding that application of the GIL was incomplete in the absence of three years of audited annual accounts.
The trial of the case was conducted by Senior Advocate R S Cheema, Deputy Legal Advisor for CBI Sanjay Kumar, and senior public prosecutor A P Singh.
CBI also stated that the company, in its application, claimed its net worth as `120 crore whereas its networth was only `3.3 crore and that the company also falsified its existing capacity as 1,20,000 TPA against 30,000 TPA. The Supreme Court on September, 2014, cancelled the entire allocations of coal blocks.