NEW DELHI : CBI today informed a special court that they were yet to receive any communication from the concerned authorities regarding grant of sanction to prosecute two public servants, who have been summoned as accused in a coal blocks allocation scam case.
Senior public prosecutor V K Sharma told Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar that the probe agency had sent a request to the concerned authorities regarding the issue last month but the response was awaited.
CBI had approached concerned authorities for considering granting sanction to prosecute two government servants — then Joint Secretary of Coal Ministry K S Kropha and then Director (Coal Allocation-I section) K C Samaria — for the alleged offences punishable under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
“It is submitted by the CBI counsel that the case file has been sent to competent authority to consider grant of sanction to prosecute two public servants in terms of order dated October 13, 2014. He says no communication has been received yet…Matter will now be fixed for March 5,” the judge said.
The case pertains to alleged misrepresentation of facts, including inflated net worth, by Madhya Pradesh-based company Kamal Sponge Steel and Power Ltd (KSSPL) to acquire Thesgora-B Rudrapuri coal block in that state.
The court had earlier summoned former Coal Secretary H C Gupta, Kropha, Samaria, KSSPL’s Managing Director Pawan Kumar Ahluwalia, chartered accountant Amit Goyal and the firm as accused in the case after refusing to accept CBI’s closure report on the matter.
The court, in its order passed on October 13 last year, had noted that since Samaria and Kropha were still in active government service, no cognizance of alleged offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act could be taken against them due to want of sanction order to prosecute them.
These five accused were earlier granted bail by the court after they had appeared before it in pursuance to the summonses issued against them.
All the accused were summoned in the case for offences
punishable under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) and 420 (cheating) under IPC.
Only Gupta was summoned for the offences punishable under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
CBI had earlier filed a progress report of its probe before the court, which had pulled up the agency saying it “cannot simply sit” over the matter to “unnecessarily delay” the investigation.
While summoning the accused in the case, the court had said that public servants had allegedly abused their official positions and acted against public interest due to which KSSPL obtained pecuniary advantage.
Regarding Ahluwalia, Goyal and KSSPL, the court had said they allegedly cheated the government in conspiracy with the government servants by acquiring coal blocks by giving false representations.
CBI, in its FIR lodged in the case, had claimed that officials of KSSPL had furnished unaudited balance sheet and had allegedly inflated its capacity to produce sponge iron by 25 per cent. (AGENCIES)
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