Ex-coal secy gets 2-yr jail

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, May 23 2017, DH News: A special court on Monday awarded former coal secretary H C Gupta two-year jail term and a fine of Rs 1 lakh for irregularities in allocating a coal block in Madhya Pradesh to a private firm.

Two senior officials K S Kropha and K C Samaria, who were posted in the Ministry of Coal at the time of allocation, were also sentenced to two-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1 lakh each.

With this, the three have become the first public servants to be sentenced in a coal scam case, which unravelled during the UPA regime.

The CBI had sought a seven-year sentence for Gupta for cheating and criminal conspiracy. The court imposed a penalty of Rs 1 crore on Kamal Sponge Steel and Power Ltd (KSSPL), which was the beneficiary of the allocation of Thesgora-B/Rudrapuri coal block.

KSSPL’s Managing Director Pawan Kumar Ahluwalia was sentenced to three-years in jail and a fine of Rs 30 lakh was imposed on him for misrepresenting facts in its application before the Ministry of Coal.

All convicts were, however, granted bail and will be able to challenge their sentence in the high court. The court had on May 19 convicted the five but acquitted chartered accountant Amit Goyal.

The CBI had in October 2012 lodged an FIR in the case but on March 27, 2014, it filed a closure report.

The court rejected the closure report on October 13, 2014, and summoned Gupta and others as accused.

There are 10 more coal cases pending against Gupta and the proceedings are being taken up individually. The Supreme Court had earlier dismissed his plea seeking a joint trial in all these cases.