NEW DELHI, Apr 4: A special court today awarded four year jail term to Jharkhand Ispat Private Limited (JIPL) directors R C Rungta and R S Rungta in a coal block allocation scam case.
Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar, who delivered the first judgement in coal scam, also imposed Rs five lakh fine on each of the convicts held guilty for deceiving and defrauding the government to bag a coal block in Jharkhand.
Besides Rungtas, the court also imposed a fine of Rs 25 lakh on the company JIPL, also convicted in the case.
Rungtas and JIPL are the first ones to be convicted among the several coal scam cases going on in the court which had in its March 28 verdict observed that the convicts had “fraudulently” and with a dishonest intention “deceived” the government in allocating the North Dhadu coal block in Jharkhand to the firm.
In its 132-page judgement, the court had held that the “intention to defraud on the part of accused persons is writ large on the face of record.”
Besides this, 19 other cases investigated by the CBI are pending before court, which was set up to exclusively deal with all coal scam matters. Two other cases probed by ED are also pending before the court.
The Rungtas, during arguments on quantum of sentence, had
sought a lighter punishment from the judge claiming that no genuine bidder was deprived of his rights due to their acts.
They had said that the principal offender was the company and not the individuals and added that a lenient view must be taken towards them keeping in mind their age.
However, the prosecution agency had rebutted their argument, saying that there are a number of cases pending against the convicts, including attempt to murder, and submitted a list of the cases pending against them.
The court had, however, acquitted R C Rungta for the alleged offences under IPC sections 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 471 (using a forged document as genuine) saying they were not proved against him.
Similarly, the court had acquitted R S Rungta for the alleged offences under sections 468 and 471 of the IPC.
It had observed that due to strict regulations regarding availability of coal, the fact that JIPL managed to procure allotment of coal much beyond the capacity required by it to run its plant “becomes important and it does raise eyebrows.”
In the case pertaining to irregularities in allocation of North Dhadu coal block by 27th and 30th screening committees jointly to JIPL and three other firms M/s Electro Steel Casting Ltd, M/s Adhunik Alloys and Power Ltd and M/s Pawanjay Steel and Power Ltd, the court had earlier summoned two others — Ramabatar Kedia and Naresh Mahto — as accused along with JIPL and the Rungtas.
However, the court was later informed that both Kedia and Mahto had died after which proceedings against them were abated. (PTI)
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