Coal scam: Court concludes recording of statements of accused

NEW DELHI: A special court today concluded recording of statements of accused in a coal block allocation case in which accused firm Jharkhand Ispat Pvt Ltd (JIPL) and its two directors R S Rungta and R C Rungta are facing trial.

Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar has fixed the matter for November 26 when the accused would place before the court the list of witnesses, whom they want to examine in their defence.

During recording of statements, the accused claimed innocence before the court and denied the allegations levelled against them by the CBI.

This is the first coal scam case which is nearing finality, as after the recording of statements of the accused, the court would record defence evidence which would be followed by the final arguments.

The court had commenced the trial on June 3 by recording prosecution evidence which concluded on October 30. Senior public prosecutor A P Singh had examined 41 witnesses to substantiate the CBI's case.

JIPL and its two directors were earlier put on trial by the court which had framed charges against them for securing allotment of North Dhadu coal block in Jharkhand allegedly on the basis of false and forged documents.

The court had framed charges against the three accused for alleged offences punishable under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 471 (using a forged document as genuine) of the IPC.

After the court had framed charges against them, all the accused had pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.

The case pertains to alleged irregularities in allocation of North Dhadu coal block in Jharkhand to JIPL.

The court, while ordering framing of charges against the accused, had noted that it was prima facie clear that they "fraudulently and dishonestly" used forged documents to secure the coal block knowing fully well that the same were forged.

In its charge sheet, CBI had alleged that it had found in the probe that JIPL had "grossly misrepresented" a number of aspects before Ministry of Steel (MoS) and Ministry of Coal (MoC) to inflate their claim, thereby inducing MoC officers and the screening committee to allocate the coal block to them.