Coal news and updates

CBI Tuesday told a special court that it has prepared the report to be submitted before the competent authority to consider granting sanction to prosecute public servants allegedly involved in a coalscam case relating to allocation of blocks to Navbharat Power Pvt Ltd (NPPL).

 

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

 

The investigating officer (IO) told Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar that further investigation was still going on in the case in pursuance of the order passed by the court.

 

"Progress report of further investigation has been filed. It has been submitted that necessary report has been prepared by the investigation agency for submitting to competent authority for considering according of sanction to prosecute the public servants involved in terms of orders passed by this court earlier," the judge said.

 

"Accordingly, matter be now put for submission of progress report of further investigation on January 28, 2015," the court said.The court, in its order passed on November 12, had said that the acts of former Coal Secretary H C Gupta and two other government officials overlooking the alleged misrepresentation by NPPL for acquiring coal block in Rampia in Odisha prima facie amounted to criminal misconduct.

 

The court had differed from CBI's conclusion that no malafide 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 officers of the Ministry of Coal (MOC) and the screening committee without keeping public interest in mind.

 

The court had also asked CBI to place before sanctioning authority the records of the case for considering the issue of according sanction to prosecute public servants involved for the offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

 

The court had kept pending the final reports filed by the agency in which it had earlier chargesheeted NPPL and two of its executives while a supplementary final report was later on filed saying no offence was found to have been committed by the 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: PTI