Coal scam: Court acquits ex-coal secy H C Gupta

A court here on Thursday acquitted former coal secretary HC Gupta and a Delhi-based company in a corruption case related to the allocation of a Chhattisgarh-based coal block, after the CBI "miserably failed" to prove charges.

Special Judge Bharat Parashar said the CBI "miserably failed" to prove the charges of criminal conspiracy, criminal misconduct, criminal breach of trust by a public servant against the accused -- Gupta, who was the coal secretary from December 31, 2005 to November 2008, and Delhi-based firm Pushp Steels and Mining Pvt Ltd (PSMPL).

The case pertained to the alleged irregularities in allocation of a coal block to the firm.

The company was allotted Brahmapuri coal block in Chhattisgarh on the recommendation by the Screening Committee for its proposed Sponge Iron End Use Project in Durg district.

In its order, the court said, "None of the circumstances/allegations levelled against the two accused stands proved much less cogently proved so the question of the proved facts and circumstances forming a chain of circumstance so complete as not to leave any reasonable ground for any conclusion consistent with the innocence of accused or otherwise does not arise at all."