Court order on charges in coal block case on July 31

A Delhi court will on July 31 issue orders on framing charges against a private firm and three persons in a coal block allocation case in Jharkhand.

Special Judge Bharat Parashar reserved for July 31 his order on whether to put the accused on trial after arguments on the point of charge were concluded.

The case has been slapped against Pawanjay Steel and Power Limited (PSPL), its two directors Gyanchand Prasad Agarwal and Umesh Prasad Agarwal, and Manager (Marketing) of Hari Machines Ltd (HML) S.K. Kanungo.

The special court had summoned them on September 28, 2016, for the alleged offences of criminal conspiracy and cheating, and said prima facie sufficient incriminating evidence exists on record against them.

The three accused were granted bail on November 9.

The CBI had registered a case of alleged criminal conspiracy and cheating under the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act against PSPL, its officials, Kanungo and other unknown persons, including public servants.

The chargesheet has said that PSPL and its two directors along with Kanungo, hatched a criminal conspiracy with a view to deceive the Ministry of Coal so as to induce it to allocate a captive coal block in favour of the accused firm.

PSPL had also submitted wrong information about the land actually acquired by them at the proposed project site in Jharkhand, the chargesheet stated.

--IANS

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