Jharkhand's ex-CM Koda summoned in coal block case

Former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda, ex-coal secretary Harish Chandra Gupta and six people and a company were summoned by a special court here Tuesday in a coal block allocation case involving Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Ltd.

Special Judge Bharat Parashar took cognizance of the chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) last month and issued summons to Koda and the others in the case for Feb 18.

The other people summoned are former Jharkhand chief secretary Ashok Kumar Basu, Vini Iron and Steel director Vaibhav Tulsyan, Chartered Accountant Navin Kumar Tulsyan, two government officials - Basant Kumar Bhatacharya and Bipin Bihari Singh - and alleged middleman Vijay Joshi along with Kolkata-based Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Ltd. (VISUL).

"From a bare perusal of the overall facts and circumstances, it is prima facie clear that there was a concerted effort by way of a criminal conspiracy on the part of Gupta, Koda, Basu, Bhattacharya, Singh, Joshi, Vaibhav Tulsyan, Navin and VISUL to facilitate misappropriation of the important nationalised natural resources of the country i.e. coal by M/s VISUL," the court said.

The CBI filed the chargesheet in December last year in the case against Koda and the others on various charges like cheating and criminal conspiracy, under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

"If the entire process of allocation of impugned coal block as discussed above is seen and analysed, the same speak volumes about the active collusion between the public servants involved in the process and the private parties in whose favour the coal block stood allotted," the court said.

"The public servants involved in the entire coal block allocation process thus abused their official position as such public servants while acting in contravention of directions in which the duties attached to their offices were to be discharged to ensure distribution of the important nationalised natural resources of the country objectively and in a transparent manner."

The court added that they failed to take reasonable precautions so as to safeguard the public interest as was required of them by law.

"It is thus prima facie clear that the decision made by the screening committee or the subsequent revised recommendation made by the state of Jharkhand was made without keeping public interest in mind and with manifest disregard to the consequences that such an act would surely undermine the public interest," the court said.

"At the same time, Gupta, secretary coal, and chairman of screening committee, was having a dominion upon the important nationalised natural resources of the country in his capacity as such and was under a duty to ensure that the property i.e. coal blocks under his dominion are distributed to the private parties objectively and in a transparent manner."

The judge said Gupta "thus prima facie also committed the offence of criminal breach of trust by a public servant and criminal misconduct by a public servant".

The case involves allocation of coal blocks to Vini Iron and Steel in Jharkhand's Rajhara town, in which its directors and unknown public servants of the coal ministry, the Jharkhand government and others were named as accused in the first information report lodged in September 2012.

It said the company was not recommended by either the union steel ministry or the Jharkhand government.

However, the then Jharkhand chief secretary, who had attended the 36th screening committee meeting July 3, 2008, had signed its minutes recommending the allocation to the firm.

The CBI alleged that the company had fraudulently claimed an inflated net worth and its ownership too had changed hands ahead of the 36th screening committee meeting.

The court in September had returned the chargesheet filed by the CBI after it failed to adequately respond to queries raised by the judge.