Coal scam: Court seeks CBI's reply on supply of docs

A special court today asked CBI to file its response by April 21 on an application to supply certain documents to Himachal EMTA Power Ltd (HEPL), accused in a coal scam case for allegedly misrepresenting facts to acquire a coal block in West Bengal.
Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar posted the matter after the probe agency submitted that it needed more time to file its reply on the plea filed on April 6 by accused firm, seeking production and supply of the copies of the documents.
The court had on February 29 granted bail to two HEPL Directors, Ujjal Kumar Upadhaya and Bikash Mukherjee, and senior official N C Chakraborty.

After taking cognisance of CBI's charge sheet in the case on February 5, the court had summoned four accused for alleged offences under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of IPC.
CBI has chargesheeted HEPL, Upadhaya and Mukherjee in the case but the judge had said "though CBI has not chargesheeted N C Chakraborty in the present case, I do not find myself in agreement with the said conclusion drawn by CBI".
In its charge sheet, CBI has alleged that HEPL had grossly misrepresented about its status of preparedness, not only in its application form, but also in the feedback form submitted on June 22, 2007 and in the information supplied by Chakraborty to the West Bengal government.

It had alleged Upadhaya and Mukherjee had deliberately conspired with HEPL and submitted false information to the Ministry of Coal (MoC) to secure allocation of Gourangdih ABC coal block in West Bengal in its favour.

According to CBI, M/s Eastern Minerals and Trading Agency Ltd (EMTA) had entered into a joint venture (JV) with Himachal Power Corporation Ltd to establish a power project in West Bengal and the company was named M/s Himachal EMTA Power Ltd.
Singhal has further claimed that decision to invest and
pay Rs 2 crore to Sowbhagya Media Ltd, allegedly promoted by co-accused and Rao, was carried out at their behest.

The court, while ordering framing of charges, has said Jindal was the "central figure" in the entire criminal conspiracy in the case.
The court has also said that a facade of companies was prima facie created as a "smokescreen" to cover up the "illegal" act of paying off Rs two crores to Rao by Jindal in lieu of favouring his two firms by securing allocation of a coal block in 2008.
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 JSPL and GSIPL in 2008.

Besides them, the other 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 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.