Coal news and updates

Coal scam: Nod to prosecute two govt servants awaited, says CBI

The CBI on Monday told a special court that they have not yet received communication from Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on the issue of sanction to prosecute two senior public servants for their alleged roles in a coal blocks allocation scam case.

The agency informed Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar that as per guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court, the special court should presume that sanction to prosecute these public servants has been granted by the competent authority as more than four months have elapsed from the date when the file was sent to them.

Senior public prosecutor VK Sharma told the judge that CBI had sent the relevant files to the authorities in December last year in view of the court's 12 November, 2014 order and they were waiting for their response on the issue.

The two public servants, against whom court had directed CBI to place records of the case before sanctioning authority for considering according sanction to prosecute them for the alleged offence under Prevention of Corruption Act, are KS Kropha, the then Joint Secretary of Ministry of Coal, and KC Samaria, the then Director in the ministry.

"It has been submitted by senior public prosecutor that pursuant to order dated November 12, 2014 directing further investigation in the matter, the CBI had sent records of the case to competent authority for considering according grant of sanction to prosecute two public servants," the court said.

"It has been submitted that since then, more than four and half months have elapsed and in accordance with the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court...if within a maximum period of four months, as detailed herein, no decision is arrived at by sanctioning authority regarding grant or refusal of sanction, then the court shall presume that sanction has been granted," the court noted in its order.

The court also directed the agency to file report of its further probe conducted in the case and fixed the matter for May 15.

The case pertains to alleged irregularities in allocation of coal block in Rampia in Odisha to Navbharat Power Pvt Ltd

The agency had earlier informed the court that director of NPPL, K V B Reddy, has intimated that name of the company has since been changed to M/s Brahmani Thermal Power Pvt Ltd.

The court, in its November 12 last year order, had said that acts of former Coal Secretary H C Gupta and then senior officials of the Ministry of Coal (MoC) in overlooking alleged misrepresentation by NPPL for acquiring coal block prima facie amounted to criminal misconduct.

In its order, the court had observed that while Gupta has retired, Kropha and Samaria are still in service and prior sanction was required to prosecute them.

CBI was earlier directed by the court to further probe the matter in which it had filed a charge sheet against NPPL, its Managing Director and Vice-Chairman Y Harish Chandra Prasad and Chairman P Trivikrama Prasad.

The court had differed from the CBI's conclusion that no mala fide intention was found on the part of public servants, saying it was prima facie clear that decision of allocating coal block to NPPL was taken by the MoC officers and screening committee without keeping public interest in mind.

The court has kept pending the CBI's final reports in which it had earlier named NPPL and its two executives in a charge sheet while a supplementary report was later on filed saying no offence was found to have been committed by public servants.

The charge sheet was filed against NPPL and its officials for offences under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating) of IPC for allegedly misrepresenting facts, including inflated net worth, to acquire coal block.

CBI had earlier alleged that the net worth of the firm applying for coal blocks was an important factor to determine its financial strength and NPPL had fraudulently claimed in its application that it was supported by Globeleq Singapore Pvt Ltd, Navbharat Ventures Ltd and Mahalaxmi Group Ltd.

source: http://www.firstpost.com