Coalscam: Court orders framing of charges against JIPL, 2 directors

Jharkhand Ispat Pvt Ltd (JIPL) and its two directors R C Rungta and R S Rungta were today ordered to be put on trial in a coal scam case by a special court which said prima facie charges of cheating, conspiracy and forgery were made out against them.

Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar ordered framing of charges against the three accused for the alleged offences under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 471 (using a forged document as genuine) of the IPC.

"Charges are made out," the judge said and posted the matter for March 16 for formal framing of charges against the three accused.

The three accused were ordered to be put on trial in a case pertaining to the alleged irregularities in allocation of North Dhadu coal block in Jharkhand.

On February 18, the court had reserved its order on framing of charges against the accused.

Earlier, CBI had alleged that JIPL and its officials had misrepresented facts regarding land required for establishing their proposed end use project as well as its installed capacity.

CBI has charge sheeted JIPL, its two directors and others in the case pertaining to allocation of coal block to the accused firm.

The accused had raised jurisdictional issue contending that as no offence punishable under the Prevention of Corruption Act was there in the case, the matter should be heard by a magisterial court.