Coalgate: CBI official faces court's ire for giving documents to accused

NEW DELHI: A special court has rapped a CBI official and asked him to explain how some documents supplied to accused persons in a coal block allocation case, including former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, were not submitted to the court.

Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar asked inspector Vijay Chettiar, the investigating officer (IO) of a case involving Koda and others, to give a written explanation tomorrow after the "discrepancy" came to the court's notice.

The issue came to light during arguments on framing of charges when the court observed that statements of certain persons, who were initially named in the FIR but not chargesheeted by CBI, were given by the IO to the accused in the copy of 'e-challan', "though the said statements were not made part of the charge sheet filed in the court."

"It was during the course of arguments when counsel for the accused persons sought to place reliance on the said statements, then the aforesaid discrepancy came to the notice of the court. IO Inspector Vijay Chettiar is directed to explain the same in writing on May 29," the judge said.

The case pertains to alleged irregularities in allocation of Rajhara North coal block in Jharkhand to Kolkata-based Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Ltd (VISUL).

Koda, along with eight others, including ex-Coal Secretary H C Gupta and former Chief Secretary of Jharkhand Ashok Kumar Basu, are accused in the case.

Besides them, the other accused are -- public servants Bipin Bihari Singh and Basant Kumar Bhattacharya, VISUL and its Director Vaibhav Tulsyan, Koda's alleged close aide Vijay Joshi and chartered accountant Navin Kumar Tulsyan.

The court is presently hearing the arguments on framing of charges in the case.