Coal scam: HC extends bail of RSPL officials

Delhi High Court on Monday extended the bail granted to three top Rathi Steel and Power Ltd (RSPL) officials who were sentenced to varying jail terms in a coal block allocation scam case.

Justice Mukta Gupta extended the relief given to RSPL's 34-year-old Chief Executive Officer Udit Rathi, 60-year-old Managing Director Pradeep Rathi and 35-year-old AGM Kushal Aggarwal till the next dates of hearing on December 5 and 6.

The high court also suspended their sentences.

The trial court on July 27 had granted them bail for a month on a personal bond of Rs two lakh each and a surety of like amount, after handing down a three year jail term to the Rathis and two year imprisonment to Aggarwal.

The trial court had also imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh each on the convicted firm RSPL and its CEO, Rs 25 lakh on the MD and Rs five lakh on the AGM in the case pertaining to irregularities in allocation of Kesla North coal block in Chhattisgarh to the company.

The conviction in RSPL case was the second in coal scam cases. In the first matter, the court had in April awarded a four-year jail term to Jharkhand Ispat Private Limited directors R C Rungta and R S Rungta in a coal block allocation scam case.

In its July 26 order convicting the three the trial court had said that "white collar crimes" are more dangerous to the society than ordinary crimes.

The court had convicted them of offences including cheating (section 420) and criminal conspiracy (section 120-B) of the IPC.