Ex-Minister of State Dilip Ray, two officials convicted in coal scam case

New Delhi: A special CBI court on Tuesday convicted former union minister of state for coal Dilip Ray in a corruption case over the allocation of a coal block in 1999. Ray was then part of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government. This is the first conviction under Section 409 of Indian Penal Code (IPC), which deals with “criminal breach of trust by a public servant”, in the coal block allocation scam. Ray has been convicted on charges of corruption, criminal conspiracy and breach of trust.

The court will decide the quantum of sentence on October 14. Under section 409, it can be up to life imprisonment. Until now, the maximum sentence awarded in the coal scandal is four years. Two former top officials of the coal ministry - the then additional secretary Pradip Kumar Banerjee and the adviser to the ministry Nitya Nand Gautam - the private company that got the coal block allocated and one of its directors have also been convicted on similar charges.

The case pertained to alleged irregularities in the allocation of the Brahmadiha coal block at Giridh in Jharkhand to Castron Technologies Ltd (CTL). In its 389-page order, the special CBI court said: “It has been concluded beyond shadows of all reasonable doubts” that the accused had conspired together so as to procure the allocation of the captive coal block in favour of the company, and achieved it “by undertaking various acts of cheating the ministry of coal”.


The order, accessed by ET, also said. "It is apparent on the face of record that they all simply abused their official positions as such, so as to extend undue benefit to the accused private parties involved by facilitating allocation of the coal block” in favour of CTL. Senior advocate RS Cheema, the special prosecutor for the CBI, appeared on behalf of the agency in the case. The CBI had filed a detailed charge sheet against the accused, including Ray, on December 21, 2015. The court summoned them in 2016, holding that there was “sufficient incriminating evidence” against them.