Coal scam: Court asks CBI to supply documents to accused

A special court today asked CBI to supply documents to the accused in a coal scam case relating to alleged irregularities in allocation of a Jharkhand coal block to accused firm M/s Jas Infrastructure Capital Pvt Ltd (JICPL).
Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar directed the agency to supply the documents after some of the accused including former Coal Secretary H C Gupta said that copies of some of them supplied to them were either missing or illegible.
"Legible copies be supplied to accused persons. To come up on October 8 for scrutiny of documents," the court said.
The court had earlier granted bail to Gupta, two senior public servants K S Kropha and K C Samria and businessman Director Manoj Kumar Jayaswal in the case pertaining to allocation of the Mahuagarhi coal block in Jharkhand.

The court had on July 31 issued summons to these accused after taking cognisance of CBI's final report for alleged offences punishable under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 420 (cheating) of IPC and under relevant provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.
The court had earlier refused to accept the CBI's closure report filed in the case and directed it to further investigate the matter.

It had noted that it was prima facie clear that officers of Ministry of Coal or the screening committee had acted in a manner which was "detrimental" to public interest and they had allowed JAS Infrastructure and Power Ltd, now known as JICPL, to "misappropriate" nationalised natural resources.

The agency had filed a closure report in the case in which it had lodged an FIR against Jas Infrastructure and Power Ltd, Manoj Jayaswal and others for alleged irregularities by the firm in acquiring the coal block.
The FIR was lodged on the allegation that the company had not disclosed to the Ministry of Coal that it was already in possession of a coal block.