UPA-era coal secretary cleared in allocation scam

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court has discharged former coal secretary HC Gupta and ex-joint secretary K S Kropha in a coal scam case related to allocation of Mednirai block in Jharkhand.
The charges included corruption, criminal conspiracy, and cheating in the allotment dating back to 2006-2009.
In his 100-page order on April 4, special CBI Judge Sanjay Bansal charged three others with criminal conspiracy and cheating in the case.
They include Kohinoor Steel Private Limited, the private company that bagged the coal block, KSPL director Vijay Bothra (formerly known as Bijay Bothra) and employee Rakesh Khare. According to the prosecution, Gupta and Kropha did not check applications in terms of coal ministry guidelines, which was a major lapse.
The prosecution also alleged that they deliberately overlooked apparent discrepancies and changes in application format to favour the company. They did so despite the company claiming net worth of 28 group companies, whereas the guidelines made no mention of group firms, the prosecution alleged.
Advocate Rahul Tyagi, appearing for Gupta and Kropha, countered the arguments and said they took all steps required to fairly carry out the allocation of coal blocks. Meanwhile, another court of special judge Arun Bhardwaj discharged former CBI additional legal adviser K Sudhakar, former RS MP Vijay Darda and son, and former junior Union coal minister Santosh Bagrodia from charges of corruption and criminal conspiracy in coal block allocations.