Rungtas had criminal intent during allotment of coal block, says Court

There was a clear criminal intent (mens rea) on part of JIPL Directors R C Rungta and R S Rungta in making false representation during the process of allotment of coal block, a special court Monday said while convicting them in a coal scam case.

Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar said the representations made by the Rungtas before government authorities, including the Ministry of Coal and Screening Committee, were "per se false" and they were made with a dishonest intention.

"The mens rea on the part of accused (Rungtas) in making the false representations right from the stage of submitting their application to Ministry of Steel seeking allotment of a captive coal block and till the issuance of final allocation letter with respect to allotment of a coal block in favour of company M/s JIPL is writ large on the face of record and that too while having complete knowledge that all such representations were false," the judge said.

"The representations made by the accused persons were per se false and it does not require any far-fetched arguments to conclude that the same were made with a dishonest intention as they wanted to present a better status/stage of their preparedness towards establishing the end use project," the court said.

It further observed that the Rungtas induced the screening committee and the Coal Ministry into believing that their representations were true.

"It is also clear that the accused persons as a result induced Screening Committee and thereby Ministry of Coal, Government of India to allocate a coal block to company M/s JIPL into believing the said representations as true even though the same were false," it said.