Court grants bail to six accused in coal case against Domco Ltd

A court here on Wednesday granted bail to six individuals accused in a coal block allocation case allegedly involving Ranchi-based Domco Pvt. Ltd.

Special Judge Bharat Parashar granted bail to Domco Pvt. Ltd.'s (earlier known Domco Somkeless Fuels Pvt. Ltd.) directors Binay Prakash, Vasant Diwakar Manjrekar, and Parmananda Mondal, chartered accountants Manoj Kumar Gupta and Sanjay Khandelwal and Shukdeo Prasad asking them to furnish a personal bond of Rs. 1 lakh and a surety of like amount each.

Directing them not to tamper with evidence or try to influence witnesses in the case, the court fixed March 16 as next date of hearing.

The court has summoned them after taking cognisance of the offence entailing criminal conspiracy and cheating as it heard a case pertaining to alleged irregularities in allocation of Lalgarh (North) Coal Block in West Bokaro Coal Fields in Jharkhand in favour of Domco.

In the charge sheet, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) stated during the course of investigation, it was found that the then Domco Smokeless Fuels Pvt. Ltd has misrepresented on a number of counts to both to the steel and coal ministries.

It was also found that a criminal conspiracy was hatched by Domco and its directors with various other people so as to induce the steel ministry make a recommendation in its favour for allotment of a coal block to the coal ministry and thereafter to induce the latter to allot a captive coal block in favour of the company.

The CBI has claimed in its charge sheet that Domco Pvt Ltd had applied to the steel ministry for allotment of a captive coal block to set up a pig iron plant of two lakh tonnes per annum capacity at Rairangpur in Odisha.