Coal scam: Court orders supply of statement of accused to CBI

A special court today said copy of statement of Jindal Group's chartered accountant, who is an accused and has sought to turn approver in a coal scam case involving industrialist Naveen Jindal and others, be supplied to the CBI for rendering assistance on the issue.
Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar, however, clarified that the issue of supplying the copy of Suresh Singhal's statement, which was recorded before a magistrate, to the counsel representing other accused would be decided after hearing the arguments advanced by the probe agency.
"I am of the considered view that copy of the statement be first supplied to the prosecution and after hearing them (CBI), the issue of supplying statement of Suresh Singhal (also a director of New Delhi Exim Pvt Ltd) to the other accused will be decided," the judge said and fixed the matter for hearing on May 13.

During the hearing, senior public prosecutor V K Sharma told the court that to render assistance on the application moved by Singhal, in which he has urged to be pardoned and has offered to turn approver in the case, the CBI needs copy of his statement which was recorded before a magistrate.
The counsel representing other accused also told the court that they need the copy of Singhal's statement to argue on the issue.
While seeking pardon, Singhal had sought to make a disclosure statement in the case which was later recorded by a magistrate and placed before the special judge in a sealed envelope.

On April 29, the court had ordered framing of charges against Jindal, former Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao, ex-Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda and 12 others for criminal conspiracy, cheating and other offences in Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block allocation scam case. The court is yet to formally frame charges against the accused.

In his plea, Singhal has claimed that co-accused Rajeev Jain, Director of Jindal Realty Pvt Ltd, had purchased NDEPL at the instruction of Sushil Maroo also working with the Naveen Jindal Group.
"I was also in practice of selling companies. Rajeev Jain had been purchasing different types of companies from me. I also sold New Delhi Exim Pvt Ltd to him. I also handed over all the papers required by him for the purpose of transfer of ownership and management, documentary evidence of which forms part of the records...

The court had on May 20 allowed CBI's application to
question Singhal on the agency's plea that before answering to the plea of Singhal for pardon, it wanted to interrogate him to decide whether his assistance could strengthen the case.
The advocate appearing for Singhal as amicus curiae had told the court that the accused was in possession of various documents and could produce them as and when required.
On May 11, the court had said that Singhal's statement be supplied to the CBI for rendering assistance on the issue. Following this, the documents were supplied to the probe agency.

The court had, however, clarified that issue of supplying the copy of Singhal's statement to the counsel representing other accused would be decided after hearing the arguments advanced by the probe agency.
While seeking pardon, Singhal had made a disclosure statement in the case which was recorded by a magistrate and placed before the special judge in a sealed cover.
Apart from Jindal, Rao and Koda, the court had also ordered to put on trial former Coal Secretary H C Gupta and 11 others, who were chargesheeted by the CBI in the case pertaining to alleged irregularities in allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block to and GSIPL.

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