Former secretary HC Gupta awarded 3-year jail in coal scam case

A Delhi court on Monday awarded three-year jail term to former coal secretary H C Gupta in a coal scam case related to irregularities in the allocation of a coal block in Maharashtra, a lawyer associated with the case said.

Special judge Arun Bhardwaj also awarded two-year imprisonment to former joint secretary in the ministry of coal, K S Kropha, in the case and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000, while Gupta was asked to pay a fine of Rs 1 lakh.

The court had convicted both for criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating and corruption in the case related to allocation of Lohara East coal block.

The court, meanwhile, awarded four year jail term to Mukesh Gupta, the director of convicted company, Grace Industries Ltd (GIL), for criminal conspiracy and cheating and imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on him, while the company was also directed to pay a fine of Rs 2 lakh separately.

Both were convicted for criminal conspiracy and cheating.

The trial of the case was conducted by senior advocate R S Cheema, deputy legal advisor for the CBI Sanjay Kumar and senior public prosecutor A P Singh.

H C Gupta was earlier convicted in three other coal scam cases and his appeal against those convictions is pending before the Delhi high court. He is currently on bail along with other convict persons in the case.

According to the CBI, between 2005 and 2011, the accused persons hatched a criminal conspiracy and cheated the ministry of coal, Government of India, by dishonestly and fraudulently inducing the ministry to allocate 'Lohara East Coal Block' in favour of GIL on the basis of false information about net worth, capacity, equipment and status of procurement and installation of plant.

The CBI also stated that the company, in its application, claimed its net worth as Rs 120 crore whereas its own networth was only Rs 3.3 crore, and that the company also falsified its existing capacity as 1,20,000 TPA against 30,000 TPA.    

The Supreme Court had on August 25, 2014, cancelled the entire allocations of coal blocks.

This is the 11th conviction in coal scam cases secured by the prosecution.