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CBI witnesses depose in JIPL coal-scam case

Two prosecution witnesses in a coal scam case allegedly involving Jharkhand Ispat Pvt Ltd (JIPL) on Thursday recorded their statements before a special court which is exclusively hearing coal scam cases. Both the witnesses were part of CBI team which had conducted searches at the residence and office of the accused. Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar recorded the statements of witnesses Dewesh Kumar, an officer of Canara Bank here, and RP Verma, an official of the National Cooperative Consumers Federation, at Ranchi.

Verma deposed before the court that he had gone to CBI's Ranchi office on March 11, 2013 and accompanied the team which had conducted the search at accused firm JIPL's Ramgarh office. "A number of documents were recovered by the CBI team and were shown to us. We were asked to put our signatures/initials on all the pages of the documents so recovered," he said.

During his cross-examination by advocate Rajiv Mohan, who represented JIPL and one other accused, Verma said he was not aware whether the documents signed by him were original or photocopies as he did not know their contents. "It is wrong to suggest that I am a planted and tutored witness of the CBI. It is wrong to suggest that I did not join any search operation on March 11, 2013. It is wrong to suggest that ... documents were signed or initialled by me later on at CBI office and that too, much after March 11, 2013. It is wrong to suggest that I am deposing falsely," he said.

Similarly, Kumar said he had reached CBI's Delhi office on March 11, 2013 and accompanied the team which conducted search in a house at Sadhna Enclave. "We started search operation from the basement of the house from where probably some office was being run. The CBI officers found certain documents inside one almirah and they started going through the said documents," he said adding that he had put his initials on the pages of recovered documents.

During his cross-examination, he denied the suggestions of the defence counsel that he was a "planted" witness of CBI. The court concluded the recording of statements of these two witnesses and posted the case for Friday. Besides JIPL, its two directors RS Rungta and RC Rungta, are facing trial in the case in which they are accused of securing allotment of North Dhadu coal block in Jharkhand allegedly on the basis of false and forged documents.

source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com