Coal scam: Ex-Coal Secy H C Gupta, PSMPL director granted bail

Bail was granted on personal bond of Rs one lakh each and surety of a like amount

A special court today granted bail to former Coal secretary H C Gupta and Director of Pushp Steels and Mining Pvt Ltd (PSMPL) Atul Jain in a coal scam case pertaining to alleged irregularities in allocation of a coal block in Madhya Pradesh.

Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar asked Gupta and Jain to cooperate with the probe while granting them bail on personal bond of Rs 1 lakh each and surety of the same amount.

"Accused H C Gupta and Atul Jain are granted bail. They will not tamper with evidence and will cooperate with probe. Put up for further hearing on August 26," the judge said.

During the brief hearing, counsel for Gupta and Jain said bail should be granted because they have been cooperating with the investigation and were not arrested by the CBI.

Counsel for Jain said no criminal antecedents had been found against his client and that the entire case was based on documents, so there was no question of tampering with evidence.

Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) said if the accused are granted bail, conditions should be imposed on them like not allowing them to leave the country without the permission of the court and they should not tamper with evidence.

The court had on July 6 summoned Gupta, PSMPL and Jain, as accused for their alleged involvement in the allocation of Brahmapuri coal block in MP to the company which resulted in loss to the government.

The court had noted that Gupta, who was also the Chairman of Screening Committee, had prima facie facilitated allocation of the coal block to PSMPL "to the detriment of all other applicant companies."

"Not only loss was caused to other applicant companies but also to Government of India as valuable nationalised natural resources of the country i.e coal stood allotted to a company by dubious means," it had said.