Coal scam: court summons ex-Coal Secy, four others as accused

Former Coal Secretary H C Gupta and four others, including two senior public servants, were today summoned as accused by a special court here in a case of alleged irregularities in allocation of Mahuagarhi coal block in Jharkhand.
Besides Gupta, Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar summoned senior public servants -- K S Kropha and K C Samria -- M/s Jas Infrastructure Capital Pvt Ltd (JICPL) and its Director Manoj Kumar Jayaswal as accused in the case for August 20.
The court summoned them after taking cognisance of CBI's final report for the 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.

"....I proceed to take cognizance of the offence under section 120-B IPC and that of offences under section 120-B IPC read with section 409/420 IPC and section 13(1)(c)/13(1)(d) PC Act, against all the accused persons i.E. M/s JICPL, its Director Manoj Kumar Jayaswal, H C Gupta, the then Secretary, Ministry of Coal (MoC), K S Kropha the then Joint Secretary, MoC and K C Samria the then Director, MoC," the judge said.
The court noted that in a detailed order passed by it on November 20 last year, it had already concluded that prima facie the offence of criminal conspiracy was made out against accused M/s JICPL, Jayaswal, Gupta, Kropha and Samria.

"It was also observed that the prima facie offence of cheating i.E under section 420 IPC was committed by M/s JICPL and its Director Manoj Kumar Jayaswal, and that offence under section 409 IPC and section 13(1)(c)/13(1)(d) PC Act were prima facie committed by accused H C Gupta, K S Kropha and K C Samria," it said.
In its November last year order, the court had refused to accept CBI's closure report filed in the case and had directed the agency to further investigate the matter.