A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Friday convicted former coal secretary HC Gupta, former joint secretary, KS Krofa, Nagpur-based firm Grace Industries Ltd and its director Mukesh Gupta for irregularities in the allocation of a coal block in Maharashtra. ordained.
The case pertains to the allocation of Lohara East coal block in Maharashtra and was registered by the CBI on September 20, 2012. The coal block was located on an area of 3.5 square kilometers and the estimated geological reserves were about 57 million tonnes. , The coal block was jointly allotted to Grace Industries Limited along with Murali Industries Limited.
The court will now hear the arguments on the issue of punishment on August 4, 2022.
During investigation, it was revealed that Grace Industries Limited had secured allocation of 16.14 million tonnes of coal reserves in the coal block on the basis of incorrect information regarding net worth, capacity, equipment and status of purchase and installation of the plant.
It was found that the said private company in its application had claimed total assets of Rs 120 crores while its own net worth was Rs 3.3 crores. The company mischaracterized its current capacity as 1,20,000 tonnes per annum (TPA) as against the actual project capacity of 30,000 TPA.
In the feedback, the private company claimed two kilns in production and three kilns under installation, whereas as of September 7, 2006, the company had only one kiln in operation.
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coal scam case
After the allotment of the coal block, Mukesh Gupta, the director of the company, sold the entire equity/share of his company to another person at a profit of about Rs 20 crore. It was found that 51 private companies had applied for the coal block. However, the criteria of inter-priority was not followed for determining the most suitable company.
The company had also submitted an incomplete application, which was liable to be rejected as per the guidelines of the Ministry of Coal. However, the officials concerned with the Ministry of Coal did not ensure the scrutiny of the applications. Further, the application was also not sent by the Company to the concerned Administrative Ministry, Ministry of Steel for its evaluation.
It was also found that the company was recommended for allocation of coal blocks without the recommendations of the Ministry of Steel, Ministry of Power and Government of Maharashtra. Further, the Company was allotted additional coal despite written complaint by the other allottee company.
charge sheet filed
After thorough investigation, charge sheet was filed on 28 October 2014 and after two years charges were framed against the accused. The trial court found the four accused guilty and acquitted two.
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