Coal scam: Court summons HEPL, its three officials as accused

Himachal EMTA Power Ltd (HEPL) and its three senior officials, including its two Directors, have been summoned as accused by a special court in a coal scam case for allegedly misrepresenting facts to acquire a coal block in West Bengal.

Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar summoned HEPL, its two Directors, Ujjal Kumar Upadhaya and Bikash Mukherjee, and its senior official N C Chakraborty for the alleged offences under sections 120-B(criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of IPC.

The court, which took cognisance of the CBI's charge sheet in the case, asked them to appear before it on February 29.

"I am of the considered opinion that prima facie there is sufficient incriminating evidence on record warranting summoning of accused persons i.E. Company M/s HEPL, its two directors Ujjal Kumar Upadhaya and Bikash Mukherjee and N C Chakraborty, CGM (Power), M/s HEPL for offences under section 120-B and under section 120-B/420 IPC and also for substantive offence i.E. Under section 420 IPC," the judge said.

CBI has chargesheeted HEPL, Upadhaya and Mukherjee in the case but the judge said that "though CBI has not chargesheeted N C Chakraborty in the present case but I do not find myself in agreement with the said conclusion drawn by CBI".

The court said, "there are no plausible reasons spelt out in the final report which could form a logical basis for not prima facie concluding that information supplied by N C Chakraborty to the Government of West Bengal was not in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy of which certain acts were already performed by Upadhaya and Mukherjee."

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 feed back form submitted on June 22, 2007 and in the information supplied by Chakraborty to the West Bengal Government.

It claimed that 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.

It said HEPL, through its January 10, 2007 application, had applied for allotment of Gourangdih ABC coal block.

In its charge sheet, CBI claimed that in the application submitted under Upadhaya's signatures, it was said the firm intended to establish a 500 MW power project in Raniganj, West Bengal.

It alleged that regarding project status, it was stated by the firm that out of the total land of 160 hectares required for establishing the power project, 80 hectares was already acquired and it had applied for remaining land.

It said West Bengal government had not recommended HEPL's name to the MoC for the coal block and instead recommended West Bengal Mineral Development Trading Corporation.

CBI further said on June 22, 2007, Mukherjee had made a presentation on behalf of the firm before the 35th screening committee and had also submitted the feed back form.

It alleged that after West Bengal government had sought information about the status of certain aspects from applicant companies, Chakraborty had submitted the present status of the firm and the proposed end-use project.

CBI said that the screening committee, in its September 13, 2007 meeting, chose to recommend allocation of Gourangdih ABC coal block jointly in favour of M/s HEPL and M/s JSW Steel Ltd.

In its order, the court had then directed that Chakraborty's name be deleted from the list of witnesses filed by CBI.