Coal scam: Plea to make Shibu Soren, D N Rao accused moved

A company, facing prosecution in a coal scam case, today moved a special court seeking summoning of former Coal Minister Shibu Soren and then Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayana Rao, as additional accused in a matter pertaining to alleged irregularities in allocation of a coal block in Chhattisgarh.
The counsel appearing for accused firm M/s JLD Yavatmal Energy Pvt Ltd moved the application before Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar, who has put up the matter for tomorrow.
Appearing for the firm, advocate Vijay Aggarwal cited a book written by former Coal Secretary P C Parekh, submitting that the ex-bureaucrat had apprised Soren and Rao that the existing system of coal blocks was discriminatory but both politicians had overruled the concerns of Parekh.

"The role of the said two persons (Soren and Rao) is clear from the book written by P C Parekh... Hence, viewed from this angle, it is clear that Shibu Soren, the then Minister of Coal in the Union Cabinet and Dasari Narayana Rao, then Minister of State for Coal, are the persons who are involved in the basic reason behind the entire facade," the counsel said.
"On the basis of the above (book excerpts), Soren and Rao are ought to have been summoned as additional accused," he said.
Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda and others, including his son Devendra Darda and former Coal Secretary H C Gupta, who are accused in the case, were earlier granted bail by the court.

The accused also included two senior public servants -- K S Kropha and K C Samria -- and businessman Manoj Kumar Jayaswal. The case pertains to the allocation of Fatehpur (East) coal block in Chhattisgarh to the accused firm.

The court had earlier issued summons against the accused for the alleged offences under section 120B (criminal conspiracy) read with 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) and 420 (cheating) of IPC and under relevant provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.
It had also refused to accept CBI's closure report in the case and directed the agency to conduct further probe the matter while saying that the Rajya Sabha MP had "misrepresented" facts in letters written to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was holding the Coal Ministry portfolio.

JLD Yavatmal Energy Pvt Ltd was allotted the coal block by the 35th Screening Committee.
CBI had earlier alleged in its FIR that JLD Yavatmal wrongfully concealed previous allocation of four coal blocks to its group companies in 1999-2005 but later filed a closure report saying no undue benefit was given to M/s JLD Yavatmal Energy Ltd by the Ministry of Coal in allocation of coal blocks to it.