Besides Ray, who was the Minister of State for Coal in 1999 in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, the court summoned two senior officials of the Ministry of Coal (MoC) at that time, Pradip Kumar Banerjee and Nitya Nand Gautam as accused.
It also summoned Castron Technologies Ltd (CTL), its director Mahendra Kumar Agarwalla and Castron Mining Ltd (CML) as accused in the case.
While summoning Ray and the other accused, Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar noted that the then public servants had prima facie abused their official positions and "there was a concerted effort by way of a criminal conspiracy to facilitate misappropriation of the important nationalised natural resources of the country i.E. Coal by M/s CTL and M/s CML."
In its order, the court also noted that the accused public servants had "in fact actively connived with the private parties involved so as to facilitate misappropriation of the nationalised natural resources of the country by them."
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"I am of the considered opinion that prima facie there is sufficient incriminating evidence on record warranting summoning of all the six accused persons, namely M/s CTL, its director Mahendra Kumar Agarwalla, M/s CML, Dilip Ray, the then Minister of State for Coal, Pradip Kumar Banerjee and Nitya Nand Gautam for the offence under section 120-B IPC and for the offences under section 120-B/420/409 IPC and 13(1)(c) read with 13(1)(d) of PC Act," the judge said.
The court, in its order, noted that Ray, Banerjee, who
was the then chairman of screening committee and Gautam, the then member secretary of that committee, were having a dominion upon the important nationalised natural resources but they prima facie facilitated its misappropriation.
"It is thus prima facie clear that the decision made by the screening committee and the subsequent relaxation of guidelines by Minister of State for Coal Dilip Ray was made without keeping public interest in mind and with manifest disregard to the consequences that such an act would surely undermine the public interest.
"They thus prima facie committed the offence of criminal misconduct by a public servant," it said.
The court observed it was prima facie clear that there was a concerted effort by way of a criminal conspiracy to facilitate misappropriation of coal by M/s CTL and M/s CML.
"Thus if the entire process of allocation of impugned coal block as discussed above is seen and analysed, the same speak volumes about the active collusion between the public servants involved in the process and the private parties in whose favour the coal block stood allotted," the court said.
In its charge sheet, CBI has said that CTL had applied in May 1998 to the MoC for allotment of Brahmadiha coal block and it was stated in the application that extracted coal shall be used by the firm for washery and power generation.
CBI alleged that on the basis of CMPDIL's report of August 1998, the CIL conveyed to MoC that as the coal block was an abandoned mine area and was full of water, it could be dangerous to adjoining properties of Central Coal Fields (CCL) where coal mining activities were being undertaken through underground mining method.
The report also said that mining coal from the block would be against safety norms and also against the mining statutes, the agency said.
CBI alleged that when the report came to Gautam, he wrote to CIL seeking further clarification but CIL reiterated its earlier stand and also highlighted that the block was not in the list of identified captive coal blocks to be allocated.
The agency said the file was sent to Ray's office on April 23, 1999 and on May 12, 1999, CTL submitted a fresh representation to Ray stating that their application may be considered expeditiously.
It claimed that on May 13, 1999 the file came to the then Coal Secretary from Ray's office with an endorsement that in light of representation received from CTL, the case may be re-examined.
CBI alleged that when the file again reached Gautam's desk, he made a note in which he "made a complete u-turn from his observations" given in the earlier note.
On the basis of the approval accorded by Ray, a letter of allotment of Brahmadiha coal block in favour of CTL was issued on September 1, 1999 by the MoC.
CBI has alleged in its charge sheet that despite strong objection raised by CIL and CMPDIL regarding allotment of the block, the screening committee and Ray proceeded ahead to allot the block to CTL.
It said that as per a family settlement, all the shares of CTL stood transferred in favour of Mahender Kumar Agarwalla and his family members while the block so allocated stood transferred in favour of another firm CML of P K Agarwalla.
CBI also alleged that CML was also involved in illegal extraction of coal from the block without signing of a mining lease or obtaining mine opening permission.