Jharkhand Coal Scam: Madhu Koda says he will approach High Court

Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda on Saturday expressed his disappointment after he was sentenced to three years of imprisonment by the Special CBI court in connection with Jharkhand Coal Scam, saying that he will appeal to the Delhi High Court soon.

"I don't want to say anything and was hopeful that I will get relief but the decision was against me. This is disheartening. This was Court's verdict so I won't comment on it but I have the option to appeal against it in the High Court," said Madhu Koda after the court's verdict.

Calling the judgement depressing, Koda said that he was not satisfied with it.

"I am feeling very depressed and not even satisfied with the judgement. I will challenge this order in the high court after reading the full judgement soon," said Koda.

He further said all his bank accounts are frozen, adding that "I don't even have the money to furnish the bail bond and penalty imposed on me and so will try to arrange from somewhere."

However, he has been granted two months statutory interim bail.

Justice Bharat Parashar also sentenced Koda's close aide Vijay Joshi, former Coal Secretary HC Gupta and Jharkhand's then Chief Secretary AK Basu to jail for three years.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 25 lakh each on Koda and Joshi, while a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on Gupta and Basu.

Private company Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Ltd (VISUL) was also found guilty of criminal conspiracy and cheating under the Prevention of Corruption Act and was slapped with a fine of Rs 50 lakh.

Koda was convicted in the case of illegal allocation of a coal block in Jharkhand to a Kolkata-based firm.

The allocation of the Rajhara North coal block is one of the instances of alleged inefficient allocation of coal blocks during 2004 to 2009.

The coal scam hit headlines in 2012 after a Central government audit revealed that the country had notionally lost upto Rs 1.86 lakh crore due to the inefficient allocation of coal blocks.

The CBI has claimed that Koda, Basu and the two accused public servants conspired to favour VISUL.