Coal scam: Accused deny CBI allegations in court

New Delhi, July 15: Former Coal Secretary H C Gupta and five others, accused in a coal scam case pertaining to alleged irregularities in allocation of coal block in Madhya Pradesh, today denied the allegations levelled against them by the CBI in a special court here.

The accused completed recording of their statements before Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar, who posted the matter for further hearing on July 21.

While framing charges against the accused, the court had earlier noted CBI's submission that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was kept in the dark by Gupta, who had prima facie violated the law and trust imposed on him on coal block allocations.

The CBI had alleged that Gupta had withheld complete and proper information from Prime Minister Office (PMO) on the matter.

Besides Gupta, the court had also framed charges against two senior public servants, K S Kropha and K C Samria, firm Kamal Sponge Steel and Power Ltd (KSSPL) which was allocated the Thesgora-B Rudrapuri coal block in Madhya Pradesh, its Managing director Pawan Kumar Ahluwalia and chartered account Amit Goyal.

Kropha was the then Joint Secretary in Ministry of Coal, while Samria was the then Director (Coal Allocation-I) section in the ministry.

The court had put these six accused on trial for alleged offences under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) of the IPC and under relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act observing that prima facie charges were made out against them.

PTI