The Delhi High Court on Tuesday stayed the order by a special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation sentencing former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda to three years in jail in a coal scam case, ANI reported. The court also put on hold the Rs 25-lakh fine the CBI court had imposed on Koda.
On December 16, the CBI court had sentenced Koda to three years’ imprisonment in the Rajhara North coal block allocation scam. It also imposed three-year jail terms on former Coal Secretary HC Gupta, former Jharkhand Chief Secretary Ashok Kumar Basu and Koda’s close aide Vijay Joshi. The court imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on Gupta.
The special CBI court had granted them statutory bail for two months to allow them to challenge their convictions in the High Court.
The court had declared Koda guilty of criminal conspiracy in the case, which is related to a coal block allocated to the Kolkata-based Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Ltd, or Visul. The CBI had told the court that the government of Jharkhand and the Steel Ministry did not recommend allocating the Rajhara coal block to Visul when the company applied for it in 2007.
However, Gupta, who headed the Screening Committee, recommended that the block be allocated to Visul later, the CBI alleged.
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