Coal scam: Court records statements of two CBI officials

NEW DELHI: A special court today recorded the statements of two CBI officials, who were part of the separate teams which had conducted searches at the residences of two directors of Jharkhand Ispat Pvt Ltd ( JIPL) who are facing trial in a coal block allocation scam case.

Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar recorded statements of CBI's DSP B M Pandit and inspector Sanjay Sehgal who said that they were part of the team which had conducted searches at the residential premises of accused R C Rungta and R S Rungta here.

Pandit deposed in the court that on the instruction of his senior official, on March 11, 2013 he searched residence of R C Rungta at Sadhna Enclave here and seized certain documents pertaining to JIPL's coal matter.

"Whatever documents I thought to be relevant pertaining to coal block allocation matter such as papers pertaining to land of purported end use project or some correspondence with the Ministry of Coal or Steel etc were taken out separately. The documents pertained to M/s Jharkhand Ispat Pvt Ltd," he said.

During his cross-examination by advocates representing JIPL and Rungtas, Pandit denied their suggestions that no documents were recovered from the residence of accused.

Similarly, Sehgal told the court that on March 11, 2013, he had gone to carry out search operation at the house of R S Rungta at Panchsheel Park here and large number of documents were recovered from there.

Sehgal would be cross-examined by the defence counsel tomorrow.

Both the Rungtas and JIPL are facing trial in the case in which they have been accused of securing allotment of North Dhadu coal block in Jharkhand allegedly on the basis of false and forged documents, a charge refuted by them.