Coal scam: Court fixes March 4 for order on framing charges

New Delhi: On Monday, a special court fixed March 4 for pronouncing its order on framing of charges in a coal scam case in which CBI had chargesheeted industrialist Naveen Jindal, ex-Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao and 13 others.

Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar said that he will take some time to pass the order on charges in the case as he is going through the documents as well as the arguments advanced by CBI and the counsel for the accused.

During arguments on framing of charges, CBI had alleged that ex-Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, also accused in the case, had favoured Jindal group firms — Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) and Gagan Sponge Iron Private Ltd (GSIPL) — in the allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand.

CBI had also claimed that the accused had conspired with each other to get the allocation of the coal block in favour of the two Jindal group firms. Opposing CBI's contention, all the accused, including Jindal, Koda and Rao, had said that there was no evidence which showed that they were in any conspiracy during the coal block allocation process.

They had also denied the allegations levelled against them by CBI in its charge sheet. Jindal, Rao, Koda, former Coal Secretary H C Gupta and 11 others were chargesheeted by CBI in the case pertaining to alleged irregularities in allocation of the coal block to JSPL and GSIPL.

Besides them, the other individual accused are — Rajeev Jain, Director of Jindal Realty Pvt Ltd, Girish Kumar Suneja and Radha Krishna Saraf, Directors of GSIPL, Suresh Singhal, Director of New Delhi Exim Pvt Ltd, K Ramakrishna Prasad, Managing Director of Sowbhagya Media Ltd and chartered accountant Gyan Swaroop Garg. These accused are currently out on bail.

Besides the ten accused, five firms — JSPL, Jindal Realty Pvt Ltd, Gagan Infraenergy Ltd (formerly known as GSIPL), Sowbhagya Media Ltd and New Delhi Exim Pvt Ltd — are also accused in the case.(IANS)