Coal scam : Delhi court acquits ex-MP Vijay Darda, former coal secretary HC Gupta

Holding that the allocation of coal blocks was part of a “policy decision” of a high-powered panel and the PMO, a special CBI court on Friday acquitted former MP and media baron Vijay Darda, his son Devendra Darda, and former coal secretary HC Gupta in a case related to alleged irregularities in the allocation of the Bander coal block in Maharashtra. Bringing down the curtains on the oldest pending coal block allocation case registered on March 27, 2014, Special Judge Sunena Sharma also acquitted M/s AMR Iron and Steel Private Limited, Manoj Kumar Jayaswal, Santosh Bagrodia, and LS Janoti.

The judge cleared all the accused of charges, including criminal conspiracy (Section 120-B IPC), cheating (Section 420 IPC), and various sections of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act. The verdict said the evidence adduced by the CBI was “highly insufficient to conclusively establish any of the essential ingredients like deception, inducement, dishonest intention or wrongful gain for the alleged offence of cheating punishable under Section 420 (cheating) of the IPC”.

Trashing the charge of criminal conspiracy against all the accused, the judge, in the 287-page verdict, said, “Even for the offence of criminal conspiracy, the prosecution case is based only on conjunctures and surmises without there being any direct or indirect evidence sufficient to draw anything reasonable, rational or conclusive.”

“Moreover, the decision to carry out the exercise of allocating coal blocks was a policy decision, which was taken in accordance with the specific instructions of the 7th Energy Coordination Committee (ECC) and the PMO. “In accordance with the extant guidelines, the Screening Committee recommended the allocation of Bander Coal Block to AMR (for its 0.3 MTPA capacity) jointly with M/s Century Textiles & Industries Ltd and M/s JK Cement Ltd and the said decision was unanimously taken after due deliberations on the information furnished by the applicants and the feedback received from the State Governments and the Ministry of Steel,” the verdict said. “The decision to allocate the coal block, by no stretch of the imagination, can be said to be a decision taken ‘without any public interest’ especially, when there is no allegation of quid pro quo,” it said. The CBI alleged that M/s AMR Iron & Steel Pvt Ltd, represented by Manoj Jayaswal, had fraudulently obtained the Bander coal block by misrepresenting its financial strength and concealing previous coal block allocations.

The case rested heavily on the claim that Vijay Darda used his position as a Member of Parliament to influence the PMO through recommendation letters. In exchange for this alleged influence, the CBI claimed that Rs 24.60 crore was routed from Jayaswal’s Abhijeet Group to a company owned by the Dardas (Asera Banka Power Ltd) under the guise of high-premium share purchases.

The verdict found a special mention of former coal secretary HC Gupta, a co-accused, and said, “However, before parting with this judgment, this court owes a duty to mention that HC Gupta…, who had been summoned by the court on a closure report filed by CBI qua him, has been honourably acquitted for lack of any evidence for the alleged charges framed against him.”  Regarding the role of former Congress MP Vijay Darda, it said he routinely wrote letters to the PMO in his capacity as an MP for the development of his constituency in Maharashtra, and, moreover, it was conclusively established that such letters were never considered for allocation. Vijay Darda is the promoter of the media company Lokmat Group. “Once, it is held that Vijay Darda had no role to play in the allocation of the coal block, the very foundation of the prosecution case regarding payment of illegal gratification of Rs 24.60 crore collapses,” it held.

In the absence of any role attributable to the MP in the grant of the coal block, it said there was neither any occasion nor any plausible motive for AMR to pay any illegal gratification to him. “There is no evidence, either oral or documentary, to demonstrate that the said transactions were undertaken pursuant to any prior demand, agreement or purpose of influencing the allocation of the coal block,” it said. 

Over 25 corruption cases filed by the CBI are currently pending before two special courts set up to try cases arising out of the alleged coal scam, whereas 27 have been disposed of so far. On January 16, 2025, the ED informed the top court that 45 complaints, including supplementary ones, were pending under the PMLA. The Supreme Court in 2014 quashed 214 coal blocks allocated by the Centre between 1993 and 2010 after taking note of two PILs and ordered a trial by a special CBI judge.