Coal scam: Court allows senior govt official to travel abroad

A special court hearing the coal scam case today allowed the plea of an accused, a Joint Secretary in the government, seeking its permission to travel to South Korea to attend an official conference.

K C Samria, who was formerly Director (Coal Allocation-I section) in Ministry of Coal, told the court that he has to attend the conference in his official capacity for which he was required to travel to South Korea from June 6 to June 12.

CBI prosecutor told the court that he has no objection to it as the purpose of his visit was to attend a conference in official capacity.
 

"Keeping in view the overall facts and circumstances of the case and the submissions made, as accused K C Samria is working as a Joint Secretary in Government of India and has already been admitted to bail on furnishing a surety bond, and moreover as he is scheduled to attend a conference in his official capacity so permission is granted...," Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar said.

The court asked Samria to intimate it about his return within seven days of his arrival.

Samria is one of the accused in a coal block allocation scam case pertaining to alleged irregularities in allocation of a Madhya Pradesh coal block to Kamal Sponge Steel and Power Ltd (KSSPL).

The court had earlier summoned former Coal Secretary H C Gupta, Samria, then Joint Secretary in Coal Ministry K S Kropha, KSSPL's Managing Director Pawan Kumar Ahluwalia, chartered accountant Amit Goyal and the firm as accused in the case after refusing to accept CBI's closure report.

The case is listed for hearing on July 2.

The agency had earlier filed the final report of its probe in the court saying their ongoing investigation was complete, though the competent authority was yet to grant sanction to prosecute Samria and Kropha for the alleged offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The accused were earlier granted bail in the case pertaining to alleged misrepresentation of facts, including inflated net worth, by Madhya Pradesh-based company KSSPL to acquire Thesgora-B Rudrapuri coal block in the state.