NEW DELHI:A special court has summoned the Maharashtra Chief Secretary and directed him to produce original records relating to the state government’s refusal to grant sanction to prosecute a public servant for his alleged role in a coal scam case.
The court’s order came after CBI informed it that they have received a communication from Maharashtra Government that though Vishwas Sawakhande, earlier Director in the Directorate of Geology and Mining, has retired on May 31 but the state has refused to accord sanction to prosecute him.
“I find force in the submission of senior public prosecutor and accordingly direct that summons be issued to Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra, who may depute some concerned officer along with the relevant original record to be produced before this court,” Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar said.
During the proceedings, the CBI told the court that in its July 23 communication, the state government had said the proposal to accord sanction to prosecute Sawakhande was received by it prior to his retirement.
Senior public prosecutor Sanjay Kumar said if the sanction was refused by the competent authority after the retirement of Sawakhande, then there was no necessity for the sanction at all.
He further said it was necessary to ascertain whether the Maharashtra Government had refused the request to consider according of sanction to prosecute Sawakhande after his retirement or prior to it.
The court has now fixed the matter for further hearing on August 10.
The court was hearing a coal scam case allegedly involving Nagpur-based Grace Industries Ltd (GIL) and others.
During the hearing, the agency told the court that further probe in the case was over and it has filed its report.
The court had directed CBI to place records of the case before competent authority to enable them consider according sanction to prosecute K S Kropha, former Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Coal, and Sawakhande for alleged offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
During the hearing, the agency told the court that they have not received any communication from the authority on the issue of according sanction to prosecute Kropha.
Earlier, the court had asked CBI to conduct further probe into the alleged role and collusion between public servants and company officials in the case in which the agency has filed a charge sheet against GIL and one of its directors Mukesh Gupta for alleged offence of cheating under the IPC.
While directing further probe in the matter, the court had observed that functioning of the then officials of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) “does not appear to be above board”.
The court had noted that when there were specific remarks by then Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao that GIL was “not eligible” for allocation of Lohara (East) coal block in Maharashtra, the PMO officials should have highlighted it before the file was submitted to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was holding Coal Ministry portfolio at that time.
In its order, the court had noted that then Coal Secretary H C Gupta had since retired from government service and there was no need to get sanction to prosecute him under section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
According to CBI, the 34th Screening Committee had allotted Lohara (East) coal block jointly to M/s GIL and to M/s Murli Agro Products Pvt Ltd and the letter of allotment was issued on June 27, 2008.
CBI had chargesheeted the firm and one of its directors saying they had falsely misrepresented the facts to bag the coal block. (AGENCIES)
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