Coalgate: After 7 hours of grilling, CBI may call HS Gupta again

NEW DELHI: CBI questioned former coal secretary HS Gupta for over seven hours on Thursday on why he as the head of the 35th screening committee favoured a company owned by Congress politicians Vijay Darda and Rajendra Darda for the allocation of a coal block in Chhattisgarh.

A CBI spokesperson confirmed that Gupta’s questioning was specifically with regard to three separate First Information Reports (FIRs) lodged by CBI on September 4 last year against JLD Yavatmal Energy, AMR Iron and Steel and JAS Infrastructure Capital.

Congress Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra Vijay Darda and his brother, the present Education Minister of Maharashtra, Rajendra Darda, are directors of JLD Yayatmal Energy were named as accused by CBI.

Devendra Darda, son of Vijay, is also a director in AMR Iron and Steel and was named as accused in the FIR against the said company. Mining baron Manoj Jayaswal is a director on all the three accused companies which got coal blocks in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh after Gupta’s questionable decisions.

“Gupta was questioned as he was head of the 35th screening committee,” a CBI spokesperson told ET. Gupta, the coal secretary between 2006 and 2008 when 68 coal blocks were alloted to 151 companies, may be the first public servant to face corruption charges in the coal scam as CBI has so far only booked private companies and their directors in 13 FIRs till date.


While lodging the three FIRs in question, CBI had accused unknown public servants of “connivance/lack of due diligence” in allotting coal blocks to these companies that allegedly made false claims before the screening committee.

Gupta was questioned on Thursday on why he overlooked the misrepresentations made by the three companies in question and why no proper background checks were carried out while allotting them coal blocks.

More decisions made by Gupta regarding the allocations are under scanner and he could be called in again by the CBI. The Corporate Affairs Ministry earlier gave CBI sanction to proceed against Gupta who resigned from Competition Commission of India.