Madhu Koda, eight others put on trial in coal scam case

Case pertains to alleged irregularities in allocation of Rajhara North block in Jharkhand to Vini Iron and Steel Udyog

Former Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda, former coal secretary H C Gupta and seven others were today put on trial by a special court here in connection with a case pertaining to alleged irregularities in allocation of a coal block.

Special CBI Judge Bharat Parasar also framed charges against former Jharkhand Chief Secretary A K Basu, two public servants - Basant Kumar Bhattacharya and Bipin Bihari Singh - Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Ltd (VISUL), its director Vaibhav Tulsyan, Koda's alleged close aide Vijay Joshi and chartered accountant Navin Kumar Tulsyan in the case.

The case pertains to alleged irregularities in allocation of Rajhara North (Central and Eastern) coal block in Jharkhand to VISUL.

All the accused did not plead guilty to the charge framed against them and claimed trial after which the fixed the matter for August 17 for admission/denial of documents by them.

"Separate charges against various accused persons have been framed. All the accused persons did not plead guilty and claimed trial," the court said.

The court had ordered to put the accused on trial for the alleged offence of Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.

The court said Gupta also prima facie committed offence under section 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) of the IPC while Vaibhav Tulsyan, Joshi and VISUL prima facie committed offence of cheating under section 420 of the IPC.

The charges under relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act were framed against five public servants -- Koda, Gupta, Basu, Singh and Bhattacharya.

On July 14, the court had ordered to put these accused on trial noting that various acts of omission and commission committed by the accused prima facie made it clear that they had conspired with a "sole objective" to accommodate VISUL in Rajhara North (Central and Eastern) coal block in Jharkhand.

CBI, in its charge sheet, had said that VISUL had applied for allocation of Rajhara North coal block on January 8, 2007 to the Ministry of Coal.

CBI had alleged that although Jharkhand government and the Steel Ministry did not recommend VISUL's case for the coal block allocation, the 36th Screening Committee recommended the block to the accused firm.