First sentence in coal block scam case; Rungtas get 4 yrs jail

In the first conviction and sentence in the multi-crore coal blocks allocation scam, a special court today sent Jharkhand Ispat Pvt Ltd (JIPL) Directors R C Rungta and R S Rungta to jail for four years, lamenting that India was lagging behind in development due to such "unscrupulous businessmen".
It was the first case in the coal scam matters which was decided by the special court, constituted exclusively to deal with all such cases.
Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar also imposed a total fine of Rs five lakh each on R S Rungta, 79, and R C Rungta, 60, who were convicted on March 28 for offences of cheating and criminal conspiracy under the IPC.

It also slapped a fine of Rs 25 lakh on the company JIPL which was also held guilty along with the Rungtas, who were taken into custody after being convicted by the court.
The court held that such "white collar crimes" were more dangerous to society than ordinary crimes due to the much higher financial losses and damages inflicted on public morale.
It also observed that coal was an important element for industrial and infrastructural development of a developing country like India.

"It is on account of such kind of unscrupulous businessmen and industrialists that despite 69 years of independence, our country is still lagging behind than most of the countries in the world in industrial/infrastructural development," the court said in its 15-page order on sentence.

Rungtas and JIPL were convicted by the court which had noted that they had "fraudulently" and with a dishonest intention "deceived" government in allocating the North Dhadu coal block in Jharkhand to the firm.
Besides this, 19 other cases investigated by the CBI are pending before the court, which was set up to exclusively deal with all coal scam matters. Two other cases probed by ED are also pending before the court.