Coalscam: RSPL, its three top officials summoned as accused

Three top officials of Delhi-based Rathi Steel and Power Ltd and the firm were today summoned as accused in a coal scam case by a special court which observed that they allegedly "deceived" the Ministry of Coal (MoC) by "misrepresenting" the fact regarding possession of land.

The court summoned them as accused after taking cognisance of CBI's charge sheet filed in the case relating to allocation of Kesla North coal block in Chhattisgarh to Rathi Steel and Power Ltd (RSPL).

Besides RSPL, the court summoned its Managing Director Pradeep Rathi, its Chief Executive Officer Udit Rathi, its AGM Kushal Aggarwal for the alleged offences under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of the IPC.

Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar summoned these accused for March 13 observing that they had misrepresented the fact regarding possession of land which was an important factor in allocation of coal block.

"Thus, M/s RSPL and its officers on the basis of the said misrepresentation about actual land in its possession, which was an important factor regarding the progress made towards establishing the end use project or its state of preparedness, deceived MOC authorities in recommending allotment of impugned Kesla North coal block in its favour," the court said.

The court noted that these officials had appeared before the screening committee for making presentation and submitting a feedback form on February 7, 2008 on behalf of RSPL.

"It is thus prima facie clear that Pradeep Rathi, MD, Udit Rathi, CEO and Kushal Aggarwal, AGM of RSPL...Prima-facie conspired together to submit a highly inflated claim about the actual land in its possession with a view to cheat the concerned MOC authorities who were having dominion over the nationalised natural resources of country i.E. Coal," the judge said.

The CBI had chargesheeted the firm and Udit Rathi only as accused in the case for alleged offence of criminal conspiracy and cheating under the IPC.

"...It is thus prima facie clear that not only M/s RSPL and Udit Rathi, CEO, who have been chargesheeted for offences under section 120-B/420 IPC and the substantive offences thereof but also Pradeep Rathi, MD, and Kushal Aggarwal, AGM, M/s RSPL also conspired with them so as to cheat MOC authorities in order to procure allotment of a coal block in favour of M/s RSPL," the court noted.