Court dismisses plea for joint trial of 3 coal cases

A special court today rejected an application of a businessman, facing prosecution in three separate cases pertaining to alleged irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks, seeking joint trial in all of them.
Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar dismissed the plea filed by businessman Manoj Kumar Jayaswal, accused in three coal scam cases relating to AMR Iron and Steel Pvt Ltd, JLD Yavatmal Energy Pvt Ltd and JAS Infrastructure and Power Ltd, now known as Jas Infrastructure Capital Pvt Ltd (JICPL).
In the AMR Iron and Steel Pvt Ltd case, former Minister of State for Coal Santosh Bagrodia, Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda, his son Devendra Darda are also accused along with Jayaswal.

Dardas are also accused with him in JLD Yavatmal's case while ex-Coal Secretary H C Gupta is facing prosecution in all the three cases.
In his petition, Jayaswal had said that all the three cases were closely knit and related to each other and were based on the same cause of actio. He also contended that the list of documents and witnesses in these cases were "almost similar" and all these matters arose out of the same alleged conspiracy.
Noting that the accused's defence in these three cases was also the same, he contended that if these matters were not tried jointly, it would cause prejudice to him.

The AMR's case pertains to alleged irregularities in allocation of Bander coal block in Maharashtra to it, while JLD's case relates to the allocation of Fatehpur (East) coal block in Chhattisgarh. JAS firm was allotted Mahuagarhi coal block in Jharkhand.
All the accused in these three cases were earlier granted bail by the court.