NEW DELHI, Aug 4: Congress leader and industrialist Naveen Jindal and other accused, chargesheeted by the CBI in a coal scam case, today faced special court’s ire for delay in completing the process of scrutiny of documents supplied to them by the agency along with its final report.
“It is too late now. By when you will complete scrutiny of documents,” Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar said after the counsel appearing for Jindal and other accused sought time to complete scrutiny of documents saying the case records were voluminous and some of them were not legible.
“I have got the certified copy (of documents) checked thrice. Atleast 50 times you all have been allowed to inspect the court record. I will then hear the matter on a day-to-day basis,” the judge said.
Initially, the judge was reluctant to give time to the accused to complete the process of scrutiny of documents and said they would have to sit in the court today and do it.
“Let the accused sit here and do scrutiny of documents. You (accused) all be here and complete it today,” the court said, adding, “investigation officer (IO) will also sit here and will handover the documents to the accused as sought.”
Senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, appearing for Jindal and some other accused, said they have received certified copies of the documents and their scrutiny was going on.
Gupta sought one more week for completing the scrutiny of documents while the other defence counsel said some of the documents supplied to them were not legible.
“I am only saying give us one week more time and we will complete the scrutiny of documents,” he said.
The judge said, “No, I will not give any further time.”
Meanwhile, special public prosecutor R S Cheema requested the court to grant seven more days to the accused to complete scrutiny of documents.
The court, however, told all the accused that the process should be complete by August 17, the next date of hearing.
The court also asked the IO to ensure that documents now supplied to the accused should be legible and complete in all respect.
The case pertains to alleged irregularities in allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand to two Jindal group companies, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) and Gagan Sponge Iron Pvt Ltd (GSIPL).
Besides Jindal, ex-Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, former Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao, ex-Coal Secretary H C Gupta and 11 others, including five firms, are accused in the case.
CBI had earlier told the court that it had provided same sets of documents running into 10,398 pages to the accused in CD form.
The other individual accused in the case are — Rajeev Jain, Director of Jindal Realty Pvt Ltd, Girish Kumar Suneja and Radha Krishna Saraf, Directors of GSIPL, Suresh Singhal, Director of New Delhi Exim Pvt Ltd, K Ramakrishna Prasad, Managing Director of Sowbhagya Media Ltd and chartered accountant Gyan Swaroop Garg.
Besides the ten accused, five firms — Jindal Steel and Power Ltd, Jindal Realty Pvt Ltd, Gagan Infraenergy Ltd (formerly known as GSIPL), Sowbhagya Media Ltd and New Delhi Exim Pvt Ltd — are also accused in the case.
The individual accused were earlier granted bail by the court.
In its charge sheet, CBI has alleged that Jindal had promised Congress support to then “unstable” Koda Government in Jharkhand in return for a recommendation for allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block to his group firms.
Koda, then an independent MLA, was chief minister of Jharkhand from September 14, 2006 to August 23, 2008 with the support of Congress, RJD and others.
While summoning the accused, the court had observed that Jindal had prima facie “manipulated” the entire Government machinery to procure undue coal block allotment in Jharkhand.
The court had said prima facie offences under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 420 (cheating) of the IPC read with section 13(1)(c) and 13(1)(d) (criminal misconduct by a public servant) of Prevention of Corruption Act were made out against all the 15 accused.
Section 409 of IPC entails life imprisonment as maximum punishment. (PTI)
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