Four-year jail for Gondwana Ispat director in coal block case

A court here on Tuesday sentenced the director of Gondwana Ispat Ltd (GIL) to four years in jail in a coal block allocation case.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge Bharat Parashar also slapped a fine of Rs 60 lakh on the firm and Rs one crore on the firm's director Ashok Daga.

The court was hearing a case related to alleged irregularities in allocation of Maharashtra's Majra coal block. The block was allocated to the accused company in 2003.

Daga has been in custody since April 27 after the court had held that the firm and its director were guilty of cheating and criminal conspiracy to get the coal block.

In its chargesheet, the CBI said Daga had made "unsubstantiated claims even towards financial preparedness and tie-up regarding iron ore with Odisha government".

It has alleged that as the Ministry of Coal (MOC) then was not following any system of checking the falsity of the information provided by an applicant company, GIL and Daga in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy misrepresented before various authorities and induced them to reserve or allocate Majra coal block in their favour.

The CBI has claimed that during the probe it was found that although after allocation of the coal block in 2003, Daga had filed an undertaking to the Ministry of Coal that he would install a plant or carry out its extension and develop the coal mine, he sold off the company to one Nand Kishore Sarda, thereby making huge profits in October 2005.

--IANS

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