Ex-minister granted bail in coal allocation case

A special court here on Tuesday granted bail to former minister of state for coal Santosh Bagrodia in a coal block allocation case.

Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Judge Bharat Parashar asked Bagrodia to furnish a personal bond of Rs.1 lakh and a surety of like amount.

The court also directed Bagrodia, who appeared before the court in pursuance of summons issued against him, not to tamper with the documents/prosecution evidence or approach the prosecution witnesses in any manner or leave India without prior permission.

The Supreme Court on Monday asked Bagrodia to appear before a special CBI court here on September 8 in coal block allocation case.

The court was hearing a case pertaining to allocation of Maharashtra's Bander coal block to AMR Iron and Steel Private Ltd.

The court last month granted bail to former coal secretary H.C. Gupta and the coal ministry's then section officer L.S. Janoti in the case.

On January 30, the court held that Bagrodia, Gupta and Janoti prima facie were involved in criminal misconduct and helped AMR Iron and Steel Private Ltd. in obtaining the Bander coal block unlawfully.

The CBI last year charge-sheeted Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda, his son Devendra Darda and AMR Iron and Steel Private Ltd. director Manoj Jayaswal. All three are out on bail.

The firm's officials were charged with criminal conspiracy and cheating under the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act.