Ex-Coal Secretary, three others granted bail in coal scam case

Former Coal Secretary H C Gupta and three others were today granted bail by a special court in connection with a coal scam case relating to allocation of Mahuagarhi coal block in Jharkhand.
Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar granted bail to Gupta, two senior public servants -- K S Kropha and K C Samria -- and businessman Director Manoj Kumar Jayaswal on a personal bond of Rs one lakh each with one surety of the like amount.
They were summoned as accused by the court in the case in which Mahuagarhi coal block was allotted to accused firm M/s Jas Infrastructure Capital Pvt Ltd (JICPL).

During the hearing, the agency told the court that the copies of the documents to be filed along with the charge sheet were not yet ready and sought sometime to supply the same to the accused.
The court, however, said that CBI should have prepared the documents in advance as the order on summoning the accused was passed last month.
"The investigating officer states that as he has to supply documents in a number of cases, so he needs some more time to provide copies of documents to the accused," the judge noted in his order and fixed the matter for September 7.

The court had on July 31 issued summons order against the accused after taking cognisance of CBI's final report for the alleged offences punishable under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 420 (cheating) of IPC and under relevant provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.
The court had noted that in a detailed order passed by it on November 20, last year, it had already concluded that prima facie the offence of criminal conspiracy was made out against accused M/s JICPL, Jayaswal, Gupta, Kropha and Samria.
"It was also observed that the prima facie offence of cheating i.E under section 420 IPC was committed by M/s JICPL and its Director Manoj Kumar Jayaswal, and that offence under section 409 IPC and section 13(1)(c)/13(1)(d) PC Act were prima facie committed by accused H C Gupta, K S Kropha and K C Samria," it had said.