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CBI files second chargesheet in coal scam against Rajya Sabha MP

Searches were carried out at six places in Nagpur, Mumbai, Jangir and Bilaspur at the official and residential premises of the accused.

The CBI filed a second chargesheet on Thursday in the coal block allocation scam against Rajya Sabha MP and chairman of Lokmat group Vijay Darda and Nagpur-based AMR Iron and Steel.

The chargesheet names Darda’s son Devender and AMR director Manoj Jayaswal, who’s also the promoter of Abhijeet group which has also been booked by the CBI in the coal scam.

According to CBI sources, the chargesheet says that AMR, in its application form for allocation of coal blocks, the fact that its group companies had previously been allocated five coal blocks.

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The 36th screening committee on July 3, 2008, had recommended allocation of Bander coal block jointly to JK Cement, Century Textiles and Industries and AMR Iron and Steel Pvt for their proposed plants in Karnataka and Maharashtra respectively.

According to the FIR filed by the CBI in September 2012, former MoS for coal Santosh Bagrodia, who was a member of the screening committee, allowed the block to be allocated to AMR Iron and Steel despite a meeting with officials from the company, who had disclosed to him that they already own five coal blocks.

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The CBI’s FIR says AMR’s directors lied about crucial information in their application for coal blocks. This comes ahead of the Supreme Court hearing on Friday where CBI is expected to file the status report on the coal scam probe.

The agency has also registered two separate cases against a private company and the promoter of another firm, besides unknown public servants, in connection with the coal block scam.

The first case has been registered against Nagpur-based Central Collieries Co, the other pertains to the promoter of Prakash Industries in the Capital.

According to the CBI, the allegations against Central Collieries are that of forgery, criminal breach of trust and sale of coal in the open market as against the policy of captive allocation of coal blocks for a specified end-use product.

In the case of Prakash Industries, the company has been accused of making false representation of net worth in order to meet the criteria for allocation of coal blocks.

Prakash Industries was awarded the Chotia coal block in 2003 and parts of the Madanpur (North) and Fatehpur coal blocks in Chhattisgarh in 2006 and 2008, respectively. Central Collieries was given the Takli-Jena-Bellora block in Maharashtra in 1998 but this allocation was cancelled in 2003.

Searches were carried out at six places in Nagpur, Mumbai, Jangir and Bilaspur at the official and residential premises of the accused.

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First published on: 28-03-2014 at 00:22 IST
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