Coal scam: Court denies permission to ex-MoS to go abroad

Former Minister of State for Coal Santosh Bagrodia, accused in a coal scam case, was today denied permission to go abroad by a special court here which cited his "past conduct" while rejecting his plea.
Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar denied the relief to Bagrodia, accused in case related to alleged irregularities in allocation of Bander coal block in Maharashtra, noting that the accused repeatedly failed to appear before the court during proceedings of the case.
"Keeping in view the overall facts and circumstances of the case and the fact that further investigation in the present matter is going on coupled with the past conduct of the accused wherein he sought exemption from personal appearance repeatedly on various dates of hearing on the ground of illness...I do not find a justifiable ground to grant permission to accused to travel abroad," the court said.

In his plea, Bagrodia had sought permission to travel to London to visit a family friend who is reportedly suffering from grave illness there.
The CBI, however, opposed the plea saying that out of 15 dates of hearing in the matter, the accused appeared only on two.
Advocate V K Sharma, appearing for CBI, submitted that the investigation in the matter was at a very crucial stage and further alleged that if the permission was granted, there was all likelihood that the accused would not return.

The court had granted bail to Bagrodia in September 2015 after he appeared before it in pursuance to the summons issued against him and others.

Besides Bagrodia, Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda, his son Devendra Darda, former Coal Secretary H C Gupta, retired public servant L S Janoti, AMR Iron and Steel Pvt Ltd and its director Manoj Kumar Jaiswal are accused in the case.
Other than Bagrodia, the court had earlier granted bail to the rest of the accused in the case.
The court had summoned them as accused after taking cognisance of alleged offences punishable under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) under IPC and under relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act.

In its January 30, 2015 order, the court had observed that Bagrodia, Gupta and Janoti had allegedly committed criminal misconduct and facilitated accused firm AMR Iron and Steel Pvt Ltd in unlawfully obtaining the coal block.
The charge sheet was filed against the accused on May 27, 2014 for the alleged offences under IPC and PC Act.
Regarding AMR Iron and Steel Pvt Ltd, the CBI had claimed in its FIR that the firm, in its application form for allocation of coal blocks, had "fraudulently" concealed the fact that its group firms had previously been allocated five coal blocks.