Coal scam: Court summons Domco Pvt Ltd, six others as accused

A Ranchi-based company, its three directors and three others have been summoned as accused by a special court in a coal scam case for allegedly misrepresenting facts to bag a Jharkhand coal block.
The court took cognizance of the charge sheet filed by CBI in the case and summoned the company M/S Domco Pvt Ltd, its three directors Binay Prakash, Vasant Diwakar Manjrekar and Parmananda Mondal, chartered accountants Manoj Kumar Gupta and Sanjay Khandelwal and one Shukdeo Prasad for alleged offences of cheating and criminal conspiracy under the IPC.
The accused have been directed to appear before the court on February 10.

"I am of the considered opinion that prima facie there is sufficient incriminating evidence on record warranting summoning of all the seven accused namely M/S Domco Pvt Ltd (earlier known M/s Domco Somkeless Fuels Pvt Ltd), Binay Prakash, Vasant Diwakar Manjrekar, Parmananda Mondal, Shukdeo Prasad, Manoj Kumar Gupta and Sanjay Khandelwal for offences under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) IPC and also for the substantive offences thereof," Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar said.
The court also clarified that if the role of any other person, including private parties or public servants involved in the process, cropped up during the course of trial, necessary action shall be initiated against them.

CBI has claimed in its charge sheet that Domco Pvt Ltd had applied to the Steel Ministry for allotment of a captive coal block to set up a pig iron plant of two lakh tonnes per annum capacity at Rairangpur in Odisha through its director Prakash.

On the asking of the Ministry in November 2000, the firm had also submitted an application for allotment of coal block to the Ministry of Coal (MOC).
CBI said that on the basis of information and documents furnished, MOC proceeded to finally allocate Lalgarh (North) Coal Block in West Bokaro Coal Fields of Jharkhand in favour of the firm for their plant at Rairangpur.

CBI has alleged that during the probe, it was found that the firm, M/S Domco Smokeless Fuels Pvt Ltd had misrepresented to the Ministries of Steel and Coal on a number of counts.
CBI alleged that during probe, it was found that the firm had initially misrepresented that it had acquired 142 acres of land and later said they had acquired 200 acres, whereas no land was acquired by it at all.
It alleged that the land, which the firm has claimed to have acquired, belonged to M/S Orissa Oil Industries Ltd which was later transferred to some other company by the orders of the Orissa High Court, but at no point of time was the land registered in the name of Domco.

CBI alleged that both Prakash and Prasad were also found to have conspired to prepare false Memorandum of Understanding to support its claim that it has acquired 142 acres of land.
CBI claimed it had found that the applicant firm had furnished false and fabricated balance sheets to support its inflated claim of its net worth being Rs 19.42 crore as on October 31, 2002, the agency said, adding that the actual net worth of the company as on March 31, 2001, was around Rs 1.61 crore only.
"Thus it was also found that the auditor's certificate submitted under the signatures of Manoj Kumar Gupta was also false. Similarly the balance sheets were signed by Parmananda Mondal and audited by Sanjay Khandelwal, Chartered Accountants were also found to be false," it alleged.