A Delhi court on Thursday convicted seven persons, including former Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda and former coal secretary HC Gupta, in a case of alleged irregularities in the allocation of a coal block in Chhattisgarh, The Indian Express reported.
The case pertains to the allocation of the Fatehpur (East) coal block in Chhattisgarh to a company named JLD Yavatmal Energy Private Limited. The Central Bureau of Information alleged in its first information report that JLD Yavatmal Energy had wrongfully concealed the fact that its group companies had been allocated four coal blocks from 1999 to 2005, according to the Hindustan Times.
The five others who have been held guilty in the case are the former MP’s son Devendra Darda, senior public servants KS Kropha and KC Samria, the firm JLD Yavatmal Energy itself and its Director Manoj Kumar Jayaswal.
Darda, a leader of the Congress party, was elected to the Rajya Sabha for three consecutive terms between 1998 and 2016.
Special judge Sanjay Bansal convicted the accused persons under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code, as well as under the Prevention of Corruption Act. All the accused persons were, however, acquitted of charges under Section 409 of the Indian Penal Code, which deals with criminal breach of trust by public servants.
The court will hear arguments on the quantum of sentencing on July 18.
The court held that Vijay Darda had misrepresented facts in letters written to the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was also in charge of the coal portfolio.
This was the 13th conviction in the alleged coal scam, which came to light during the second term of the United Progressive Alliance.
In March 2012, the Comptroller and Auditor General had alleged that 194 coal blocks had been allocated in an inefficient and opaque manner to public sector enterprises and private companies betwee 2004 to 2009. The authority had initially that this caused a loss of Rs 10.6 lakh crore to the exchequer.
However, the Comptroller and Auditor General revised the figure to Rs 1.86 lakh crore in its final report submitted to Parliament in August 2012.
In the case pertaining to JLD Yavatmal Energy, the CBI had in 2014 filed a closure report, claiming that the ministry gave no undue benefit to the company. However, in November that year, the court refused to accept the closure report, and directed the agency to carry out further investigation into the matter.
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