A Delhi court has convicted seven persons, including former Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda and ex-Coal Secretary H.C. Gupta, for their involvement in a case concerning irregularities in the allocation of a coal block in Chhattisgarh.
The accused have been held guilty under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, and relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Special Judge Sanjay Bansal presided over the case and delivered the verdict, also convicting Devender Darda, the son of Vijay Darda, as well as two senior public servants named K.S. Kropha and K.C. Samria.
The court further found JLD Yavatmal Energy Pvt Ltd and its Director Manoj Kumar Jayaswal guilty of the charges.
The judge is scheduled to hear the arguments regarding the quantum of punishment on July 18.
The court has acknowledged the arguments presented by senior public prosecutor A.P. Singh, stating that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has successfully proven its case beyond any reasonable doubt.
Previously, on November 20, 2014, the court had rejected the closure report submitted by the CBI in this case. The court had directed the probe agency to initiate a fresh investigation, citing that the former MP, Vijay Darda, had “misrepresented” facts in letters addressed to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who also held the coal portfolio.
According to the court, Vijay Darda, who is the chairperson of the Lokmat Group, resorted to such misrepresentations in order to obtain the Fatehpur (East) coal block in Chhattisgarh for JLD Yavatmal Energy. The Lokmat Group is a Maharashtra-based media company operating across multiple platforms.
The court ruled that the act of cheating was carried out by private entities as part of a conspiracy involving both private parties and public servants.
JLD Yavatmal Energy was granted the Fatehpur (East) coal block by the 35th Screening Committee.
Initially, the CBI alleged in its FIR that JLD Yavatmal had unlawfully concealed the previous allocation of four coal blocks to its group companies between 1999 and 2005. However, the agency later filed a closure report, stating that no undue benefit had been granted to JLD Yavatmal by the Coal Ministry during the coal block allocation.
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