Prima facie evidence against JIPL directors in coal scam: Court

A court here on Monday said that prima facie charges of cheating, conspiracy and forgery were made out against Jharkhand Ispat Pvt. Ltd. (JIPL) and its two directors R. C. Rungta and R. S. Rungta in a coal block allocation case.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge Bharat Parashar said that prima facie charge of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery of valuable security, forgery for the purpose of cheating and using a forged document as genuine are made out against all the accused i.e. JIPL, R.C. Rungta and R.S. Rungta.

The charges will be framed on March 16, the court said.

"From the overall facts and circumstances of the case, it is clear that it is not a case where any of the accused is being primarily held vicariously liable but it is prima facie evident that all the accused persons made a concerted effort by hatching a criminal conspiracy to cheat the MOC so as to procure allotment of a coal block," the court said.

"...It is thus prima facie clear that the accused persons entered into a criminal conspiracy with a view to secure allotment of a coal block (an important nationalized natural resource of the country) from ministry of coal, government of India, on the basis of false and forged documents," the court said.

"It is also prima facie clear that the impugned acts of forgery of suitability report and techno-economic feasibility report (TEFR) and that of the valuable security i.e. 'Agreement to Sell' were done in furtherance of the criminal conspiracy so hatched and entered into by the accused persons for the purpose of cheating MOC authorities who were having dominion over the coal resources of the country and thereby to dishonestly induce them to make allotment of a coal block to the company JIPL."

The court said that it is also prima facie clear that the accused persons fraudulently and dishonestly used the impugned forged documents knowing fully well that the same were forged documents.

The case pertains to allocation of North Dhadu coal block in Jharkhand to JIPL.

In its charge sheet, the CBI had alleged that JIPL had "grossly misrepresented" a number of aspects before the ministry of steel and ministry of coal (MoC) to inflate their claim, and thereby induced the MoC officers and the screening committee to allocate the coal block to them.

Both the directors are out on bail.