A Special CBI Court on Monday convicted Jharkhand Ispat Pvt. Ltd (JIPL) directors R.S. Rungta and R.C. Rungta in a coal scam case pertaining to allotment of coal block.
The case involves the JIPL and its directors who are accused in acquiring the coal block on the basis of false documents. Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar convicted them on charges of criminal conspiracy and cheating under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of IPC.. It however acquitted them on charges of forgery. Rungtas, who were on bail, have been taken into judicial custody. The court will now hear quantum on sentencing on March 31.
The case pertains to irregularities in allocation of North Dhadu coal block by the 27th and 30th screening committees jointly to JIPL and three other firms M/s Electro Steel Casting Ltd, M/s Adhunik Alloys and Power Ltd and M/s Pawanjay Steel and Power Ltd.
On March 21 last year, the court had framed charges of conspiracy, forgery and cheating against the convicts. All the accused pleaded not guilty, and denied the allegations levelled against them by the CBI.
In December last year, the court had dismissed RS Rungta’s plea to summon former prime minister Manmohan Singh and ex-minister of state for coal Dasari Narayan Rao as defence witnesses in the case.
The businessmen were granted bail on January 14 last year on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh each and a surety of the like amount.
In its charge sheet, CBI had alleged that during the probe, it was found that JIPL had “grossly misrepresented” a number of aspects before Ministry of Steel (MoS) and Ministry of Coal (MoC) to inflate their claim and thereby induced the MoC officers and the screening committee to allocate the coal block to them.
The coal allocation scam, which had thrown the former UPA government into a major controversy, pertained to the “inefficient” allocation of the country’s coal deposits to public sector entities and private companies between 2004 and 2009.
