Special court acquits 4 in MSMCL coal scam case

A special court has discharged four accused, including the son of a Maharashtra MLA, and ordered framing of charges against a former IAS officer in a 2007 corruption case over a coal block allocation. The court, while pronouncing the order last week, has left it to the Central Bureau of Investigation to decide whether to investigate alleged wrongdoings over two other coal blocks that were among four allocated to a Maharashtra government-owned company.

The Ministry of Coal allocated the coal blocks of Warora (with estimated reserves of 73 million tonnes), Agarzari (137 MT), Marki-Zari-Jamni-Adkoli (20 million tonnes) and Gare-Palma II (175 MT to Maharashtra State Mining Corporation Ltd (MSMCL).

The case pertained to the allocation of the block comprising Adkoli.


One of the accused in the case was Sunil Gutte, whose father, Ratnakar Manikrao Gutte, is currently an MLA in Maharashtra. Sunil Hi-Tech Engineers Ltd (SHEL), where Sunil Gutte was a director, was the joint venture partner of MSMCL for the block. The CBI accused Gutte of conspiring with financial consultants, DG Philip (a former IAS officer who was then managing director of MSMCL) and Avinash Warjukar (the then chairman of MSMCL) to illegally select financial consultants for the government-owned company at an exorbitant cost.

It was alleged by the CBI, in its 26,000-page charge sheet, that SHEL was technically ineligible to be selected as a JV partner of MSMCL for developing the coal block.

Appearing on behalf of Gutte, Advocate Vijay Aggarwal contended that SHEL with its consortium partner was technically eligible.