A Delhi court on Friday acquitted former Coal Secretary HC Gupta, former Joint Secretary (Coal) K S Kropha, and then Director K C Samaria in a coal scam case involving irregularities in the allocation of the Mahugarhi Coal Block in Jharkhand.
This marks Gupta’s second acquittal in a coal block allocation case, even as he stands convicted in five other related cases, with appeals currently pending before the Delhi High Court. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has already challenged his earlier acquittal in the first case. Of the 19 cases filed by the CBI against Gupta, 12 remain pending before trial courts.
While acquitting the former officials, Special Judge Sanjay Bansal on Friday convicted JAS Infrastructure Capital Ltd and its then director Manoj Kumar Jayaswal on charges of cheating and criminal conspiracy in connection with obtaining the Mahugarhi coal block through fraudulent means. The court will hear arguments on sentencing on July 8.
According to official data, 29 corruption cases arising out of the coal allocation scam and filed by the CBI are currently pending before two special courts established for this purpose, while 27 cases have been disposed of so far. On January 16, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) informed the Supreme Court that 45 complaints (equivalent to chargesheets under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)), including supplementary complaints, are pending in relation to the scam.
The coal scam first gained judicial attention after two Public Interest Litigations (PILs) led the Supreme Court in 2014 to cancel 214 coal block allocations made by the central government between 1993 and 2010. The top court then ordered a CBI-led investigation and trial under special courts, later increasing the number of such courts to two for faster adjudication.
In the Mahugarhi coal block case, the CBI was represented by Special Public Prosecutor R S Cheema, Additional Legal Advisor Sanjay Kumar, and Public Prosecutors A P Singh and N P Srivastava. The CBI had registered the case based on a Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) reference, investigating alleged corruption by officials of the Ministry of Coal in the allocation of coal blocks to private companies during 2006–2009.
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According to the First Information Report (FIR), JAS Infrastructure Capital Pvt Ltd and its director Manoj Kumar Jayaswal had misrepresented and concealed key facts in their application to obtain wrongful gains in the Mahugarhi coal block allocation.
In a statement on Friday, the CBI said: “This is the 19th conviction in coal block allocation cases investigated by CBI. Initially, CBI had filed a final closure report in the case on November 20, 2014.” However, the special court had taken cognisance and framed charges against the company and its director, along with Gupta, Kropha, and Samaria. The CBI alleged that JAS Infrastructure Capital Pvt Ltd made false and misleading claims about its financial net worth. The company also allegedly misrepresented information related to the appraisal and debt syndication by financial institutions to unfairly secure coal block allocation.
Moreover, the company was accused of deliberately concealing facts about previous allocations to other group or associate companies in its application and feedback forms.
Additionally, the CBI claimed that the company had dishonestly projected the net worth of unrelated third-party companies — namely Inertia Iron & Steel Industries Pvt. Ltd. and IL&FS — as its own. These figures were presented both in the company’s application and during its presentation before the Screening Committee for the Mahugarhi block allocation. In the course of the trial, the CBI examined 18 prosecution witnesses in support of its case.
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