Coal scam: Court allows Naveen Jindal to travel abroad

Congress leader and industrialist Naveen Jindal, accused in a coal block allocation scam case along with 14 others, has been allowed by a special court to travel abroad from May 28 to June 5 for business purposes.
Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar allowed the plea filed by Jindal seeking the court's permission to go to France and imposed certain conditions on him.
Jindal was earlier granted bail by the court which had imposed several conditions on him, including that he will not leave the country without the court's nod.
Apart from Jindal, CBI had chargesheeted ex-Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao, ex-Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, former Coal Secretary H C Gupta and 11 others in the case pertaining to alleged irregularities in allocation of allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand to Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) and Gagan Sponge Iron Private Ltd (GSIPL).

Besides them, the other individual accused are -- Rajeev Jain, Director of Jindal Realty Pvt Ltd, Girish Kumar Suneja and Radha Krishna Saraf, Directors of GSIPL, Suresh Singhal, Director of New Delhi Exim Pvt Ltd, K Ramakrishna Prasad, Managing Director of Sowbhagya Media Ltd and chartered accountant Gyan Swaroop Garg. These accused are currently out on bail.
Besides the ten accused, five firms -- JSPL, Jindal Realty Pvt Ltd, Gagan Infraenergy Ltd (formerly known as GSIPL), Sowbhagya Media Ltd and New Delhi Exim Pvt Ltd -- are also accused in the case.

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The court, meanwhile, allowed the convicts' plea to suspend their sentence for one month for filing the appeal in higher court and granted them bail on a personal bond of Rs two lakh each and a surety of like amount.

While issuing the release warrant, the court also granted them time till August 2 for depositing the fine.