Ex-coal secretary HC Gupta misled PMO, says CBI in fresh charge sheet

A special CBI court has taken cognisance of a fresh Central Bureau of Investigation charge sheet accusing former coal secretary H C Gupta of “misleading the (then) prime minister’s officer” in a coal allocation scandal dating back to 2007. The court has summoned Gupta, the then joint secretary coal K S Kropha and two others based on the charge sheet that has accused Gupta and other officers of showing “undue favour” to a private company.

The court has held that “there is enough material showing commission of offences” of cheating, criminal conspiracy and corruption charges under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

The court has left it “to the wisdom” of CBI to challenge denial of government sanction to prosecute the then coal ministry director who had, as per the charge sheet, colluded and “deliberately chose to ignore violation of guidelines” for allocation of coal block in Jharkhand.


While CBI received sanction to prosecute Gupta, the government declined sanction to prosecute K C Samria, the then director. The court has made it clear that “if during the course of the trial, the role of any other person – be it private parties or public servants – involved in the process, crops up, then necessary action shall be initiated against them also as per law”.

CBI had earlier filed a closure report against involvement of government servants in the scandal, but a CBI court in 2017 declined it and asked the agency to investigate further. Pursuant to the court’s directions, the CBI investigated and filed a fresh charge sheet in December 2021.

The charge sheet alleged that Gupta “misled the PMO and deliberately overlooked the apparent discrepancies and change in the application format to favour Contisteel Ltd (co-accused)” and recommended allocation of Hurilong & Hutar Sector-C coal block in Jharkhand to the company.

“It was the duty of the joint secretary coal to present the relevant data / recommendations of the concerned administrative ministry and state governments before the members of the screening committee for facilitating the screening committee for taking objective decisions, but he failed to do so,” it alleged.

The accused conspired together and cheated the coal ministry’s screening committee to induce it to recommend Contisteel for allocation of coal block, the charge sheet claimed.