Coal scam: CBI asked to supply translated copies of documents

A special court today directed CBI to supply to the accused translated copies of documents, which are in Marathi, relating to a coal block allocation scam case.
Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar told the investigating officer (IO) to get the documents translated and file it in the court and supply them to the accused by October 3, after the defence counsel said they were unable to understand these documents which are in Marathi language.
One of the defence counsel also sought some documents from the agency, saying the material supplied to him along with the final report were not legible.

"IO says he will provide all the deficient copies within 8-10 days. Accordingly, put up for scrutiny of documents on October 7," the court noted in its order.
During the hearing, the judge told the IO, "On October 3, the documents along with translation of documents in Marathi language should be here. You have to give translation of these documents to the court also."
The court had earlier granted bail to ex-Coal Secretary H C Gupta and five others, including a senior public servant, in connection with the case pertaining to alleged irregularities in allocation of Lohara (East) coal block in Maharashtra to Nagpur-based accused firm Grace Industries Ltd (GIL).

Besides Gupta, the court had granted bail to public servant K S Kropha, who was a former Joint Director in the Ministry of Coal, Vishwas Sawakhande, earlier Director in Directorate of Geology and Mining in Maharashtra government and directors of GIL, Mukesh Gupta and Seema Gupta.

The court had summoned GIL and the five individuals as accused in the case for alleged offences punishable under sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy) read with 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) and 420 (cheating) of IPC and under relevant provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.
According to CBI, the 34th Screening Committee had allotted Lohara (East) coal block jointly to M/s GIL and to M/s Murli Agro Products Pvt Ltd and the letter of allotment was issued on June 27, 2008.

CBI had chargesheeted the firm and one of its directors alleging they had falsely misrepresented facts to bag coal block.