Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths from Delhi on Thursday conducted searches at three locations in Ranchi and Delhi in the coal block scam case after registering a case against a Ranchi-based company — Domco Private limited, its promoters, directors and unknown others.
“Search operations related to coal block allocation are being conducted at the offices of Domco Private limited at two locations in Ranchi and one at Delhi,” said a CBI official in Delhi over phone. The search operations are being conducted after registering a case against the company under Section 120B read with 420 of IPC, said the official.
According to an official release by the investigating agencies, the company allegedly entered into a conspiracy with unknown others and submitted false information with dishonest intentions to the concerned authorities while applying for a captive coal block and secured allocation of ‘lalgarh (North)’ coal block. The Director of the said company allegedly gained pecuniary benefit of Rs seven crore by selling shares of the company on premium, after the allocation of the coal block.
The company earlier had also been issued a show cause notice in 2012 by the Ministry of Coal for the delay in the development of the coal block by the company asking why it should not be considered as violation of the terms and conditions of the lalgarh Coal Block allocation and directed it to reply within 20 days failing which the ministry threatened it to de-allocate the lalgarh Coal Block.
One of the conditions of coal block allocation was that the coal production from the captive block shall commence within 36 months in case of open cast mine and in 48 months in case of underground coal mines from the date of allocation letter.
The coal block mining schedule should be modified accordingly and submitted to the ministry within three months from the date of allocation. Inspite of developing the coal block, the company floated shares of the company in the market and made a profit of over Rs 7 crore.
The CBI so far has registered 20 cases in the scam so far in the coal block scam. Of these, it has closed four and filed charge sheets in two of them. The CBI is reportedly preparing to register more charge sheets in the case against the former coal secretary, former Jharkhand Chief Secretary A K Basu and others. So far, there hasn’t been any charge sheet against any bureaucrat in the scam.
Basu had allegedly influenced the allocation to Vini Iron and Steel Udyog, against which an FIR was registered on September 4, 2012. CBI had alleged to “embellish its claim for allocation of coal block”, “fraudulently” claimed they were having the required net worth to get the mines.
Domco Private limited is a Private Company incorporated on February 1988.