Coal scam: Statement of CBI witness recorded in JIPL case

NEW DELHI: A special court today recorded the statement of a prosecution witness, who had accompanied the CBI team in the search conducted at a house here in connection with a coal scam case involving Jharkhand Ispat Pvt Ltd ( JIPL) and its two directors.

Deposing as a CBI witness, JP Bhagoria, an official of Bank of Baroda here, said that on March 11, 2013, he had gone to CBI office where some other bank officials were present and from there they along with agency sleuths went to a house in Panchsheel Park here for search.

He said that after reaching the house, the CBI officers conducted the search and recovered various documents from there.

"The CBI officers asked myself and Sachdeva (another bank official) to sign on the papers so recovered and a memo regarding seizure of the papers on which I and Sachdeva both signed," he told special CBI judge Bharat Parashar.

During his cross examination, he denied the suggestions of the defence counsel that he was a planted or tutored witness and was deposing falsely at the instance of CBI.

The court concluded recording of statement of Bhagoria and fixed the matter for July 7 for further evidence.

Besides JIPL, its two directors R S Rungta and R C Rungta, are facing trial in the case in which they are accused of securing allotment of North Dhadu coal block in Jharkhand allegedly on the basis of false and forged documents.

The accused are facing trial for alleged offences under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 467 (forgery of a valuable security), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 420 (cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the IPC.

Both the Rungtas were granted bail by the court earlier after they had appeared before it in pursuance to summons.

Besides these three, Ramabatar Kedia and Naresh Mahto were also summoned as accused but since both have died, the proceedings against them have been abated by the court.

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