Firm, director not yet served with SC notice in coal case: CBI

CBI has told a special court that Prakash Industries Limited (PIL) and its director, who were discharged by the Delhi High Court in a coal block allocation scam case, have not been served with the notice issued on its appeal by the Supreme Court.
The prosecutor also informed the court that the Registrar of Supreme Court has ordered the agency to serve the notice to PIL and its director A K Chaturvedi by hand and the CBI investigating officer would make all efforts to serve them.
"Senior public prosecutor for the CBI has submitted that in the SLP which has been filed before Supreme Court, the two respondents namely A K Chaturvedi and M/s Prakash Industries Ltd have not been yet served.

"However, the court of Registrar, Supreme Court has now ordered that notice be served upon the two respondents dasti by CBI. Investigating Officer Inspector Raja Chatterjee states that will make all efforts to get the service effected," Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar and fixed the matter for August 30.
CBI had earlier told the court that though the special leave petition (SLP) has been filed before the apex court the respondents have not been served yet.
The SLP was preferred by CBI against the high court's September 5, 2014 order quashing charges of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy framed by the trial court against the firm and its Director (Corporate Affairs) A K Chaturvedi.

The other two accused in the case are Goutam Kumar Basak, the then Executive Secretary of Steel Ministry's Joint Plant Committee, and Soumen Chatterjee, the then Manager (F&A) of the committee. They are currently out on bail.

Basak and Chatterjee were earlier put on trial on charges of cheating, forgery and other offences under IPC and under Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly giving a misleading report regarding PIL's production capacity.
The Joint Plant Committee was set up in 1964 by the government to formulate guidelines for production, allocation and pricing of iron and steel and is the only institution which is empowered by the Steel Ministry to collect data on iron and steel industry.

According to CBI, on the basis of allegedly inflated production figures and "bogus reports" submitted by PIL, Basak and Chatterjee, the screening committee had allotted captive coal block at Urtan in Madhya Pradesh and Vijay Central in Chhattisgarh to PIL.
CBI's charge sheet had alleged that PIL had mined coal from Chotia mining block in excess and diverted approximately 50 per cent of it to the black market and earned a profit of about Rs 22.7 crore.