Coalgate: Supreme Court agrees to appoint three prosecutors to assist special public prosec

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today accepted the request of special public prosecutor (SPP) R S Cheema seeking assistance of three CBI prosecutors in conducting the trial proceedings in the coal blocks allocation case.

A bench of Chief Justice R M Lodha and justices Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph allowed senior advocate Cheema's plea to appoint senior public prosecutors V K Sharma, Sanjay Kumar and A P Singh to assist him in the case.

The apex court on July 25 had appointed Additional Sessions Judge Bharat Parashar to preside over the Special Court set up for exclusively holding trial in cases of coal block allocation scam and named Cheema as SPP.

It had also ordered trial of the cases on a day-to-day basis with a direction that no other court except the apex court would entertain or intervene in the matters arising out of coalgate.

The bench had said the noted criminal lawyer will have access to all materials and documents relating to investigations for his opinion and assistance to the special court in view of the high magnitude and compass of the case and he will be free to have his own team of lawyers to assist him.