Coal scam: Nod to prosecute public servants awaited, says CBI

New Delhi, Apr 21: The CBI today told a special court that it has not received any information from authorities concerned on the issue of according sanction to prosecute two public servants allegedly involved in a coal scam case.

The prosecutor told special CBI judge Bharat Parashar that the agency had sent case files to the authorities in view of the court's November 12, 2014 order and the agency was waiting for their response.

"It has been submitted that no further information has yet been received from the competent authority regarding the issue of considering of according of sanction to prosecute public servants," the court said and fixed the matter for further proceedings on May 11.

The case pertains to alleged irregularities in allocation of coal block in Rampia in Odisha to Navbharat Power Pvt Ltd (NPPL).

During today's hearing, the agency moved an application saying that director of NPPL, K V B Reddy, has intimated that name of the company has since been changed to M/s Brahmani Thermal Power Pvt Ltd.

The court, in its November 12 order, had said that acts of former Coal Secretary H C Gupta and the then senior officials of the Ministry of Coal (MoC) in overlooking alleged misrepresentation by NPPL for acquiring coal block prima facie amounted to criminal misconduct.

The two public servants, against whom court had directed CBI to place records of the case before sanctioning authority for considering according sanction to prosecute them for the alleged offence under Prevention of Corruption Act, are K S Kropha, MoC's then Joint Secretary, and K C Samaria, the then Director.

In its order, the court had observed that while Gupta has retired, Kropha and Samaria are still in service and prior sanction was required to prosecute them.

CBI was earlier directed by the court to further probe the matter in which it had filed a charge sheet against NPPL, its Managing Director and Vice-Chairman Y Harish Chandra Prasad and Chairman P Trivikrama Prasad.

PTI