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PTI
New Delhi
Former coal secretary H C Gupta and two serving bureaucrats were sentenced on Monday to two years in prison in the coal block allocation scam, one of the biggest scandals to hit the UPA government headed by Manmohan Singh that sullied his otherwise unblemished career.
A CBI court here handed down the punishment to Gupta, who was the coal secretary from December 31, 2005 to November 2008, K S Kropha and K C Samaria, the then joint secretary and director respectively in the ministry of coal, for cheating, criminal conspiracy and corruption. They became the first public servants to be convicted and sentenced in a coal block allocation scam case.
The case relates to alleged irregularities in allocation of a coal block in Madhya Pradesh to a private firm. The court also imposed a fine of Rs one crore on Madhya Pradesh-based Kamal Sponge Steel and Power Ltd (KSSPL), which was allotted Thesgora-B/Rudrapuri coal block in the state.
Its Managing Director Pawan Kumar Ahluwalia was awarded a three-year jail term for"misrepresenting" facts in its application before the Ministry of Coal (MOC), which was then headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Besides the jail term, Special CBI Judge Bharat Parasher also imposed a fine of Rs one lakh each on the three bureaucrats convicted in the case. Ahluwalia has also been directed to pay a fine of Rs 30 lakh.
While holding them guilty of multiple offences, the court held Gupta, Kropha and Samria guilty of having entered into a"criminal conspiracy" with KSSPL and Ahluwalia to commit"criminal misconduct"for securing the coal block.
All the convicts were, however, granted bail on a personal bond of Rs one lakh each and a surety of the like amount soon after the sentence was pronounced. They can now move the High Court in appeal.
The court had on May 19 convicted all the five but acquitted chartered accountant Amit Goyal. It noted that Gupta made"dishonest misrepresentation" before the then Prime Minister.
The court, however, gave a clean chit to Manmohan Singh, noting he had only acted on the the recommendations of the screening committee chaired by Gupta.
