CBI court frames charges against Naveen Jindal, others in coal block allocation case

A special CBI court on Thursday framed charges against industrialist Naveen Jindal and others in connection with the coal block allocation case.

Special Judge Bharat Parashar was hearing a matter pertaining to the allocation of the Urtan North coal block in Madhya Pradesh.

The court charged Naveen Jindal, his firm Jindal Steel Private Limited, DN Abrol (Executive Director), Vikrant Gujaral (Vice Chairman and CEO), Anand Goel (Joint Managing Director) and Sushil Maroo (Director Finance) for criminal conspiracy and cheating the coal ministry.

All the accused appeared before the court today to sign the order copy formally.

The date for the commencement of trial in the matter has been slated to September 30 by the court.

On July 1, the court had ordered framing of charges against the six accused under Section 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

CBI Counsel VK Sharma, while arguing for framing of charges, had pointed out that JSPL procured allocation of Urtan North coking coal block in Madhya Pradesh on the basis of dishonesty and fraudulent misrepresentation of facts in the feedback form about the actual land acquired for several projects.

Sharma had also pointed out that JSPL filed an application for the coal block in the utter disregard of the condition of the advertisement issued by the Ministry of Coal for allocation of coal block.

In its charge sheet, the CBI has alleged that the JSPL misrepresented the equipment purchase orders and misled the Coal Ministry.

Jindal and others are also facing trial in a case pertaining to the allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block of Jharkhand.