Coalscam:MoC officials worked in 'active collusion' says court

A special court today ordered further probe in a coal block allocation scam case involving Vikas Metal and Power Ltd (VMPL,) saying prima facie "active collusion" was found on the part of public servants for not verifying the claims made by the firm.
Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar said the arbitrary manner in which officials of Ministry of Coal (MoC) functioned clearly amounted to an act by public servants of not only abusing their position but also acting against public interest.
"It is thus prima facie clear that non-scrutinizing of the applications of M/s VMPL for the purpose of eligibility and completeness on the part of MoC officers much less verifying the claims made in the application form was clearly on account of the said active collusion between them," the court said.

"In view of the aforesaid circumstances when sanction under provisions of Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act to prosecute public servants K S Kropha and K C Samria is required, so before proceeding to take cognizance of any of the offences either against the private parties involved or the public servants, I deem it appropriate to refer the present matter for further investigation to the CBI under provisions of CrPC," the judge said.
The court posted the matter for filing of progress report of further investigation by CBI on August 24.
The order came in the case in which CBI had filed a supplementary final report on April 7 this year after the court had refused last year to accept the closure report and directed the agency to further investigate the matter.

The case pertains to alleged irregularities in allocation of Moira and Madhujore (North and South) coal blocks in West Bengal to VMPL.
The court, in its today's order, said that during the course of further investigation the CBI shall place the records of the present case before the sanctioning authority which may consider giving the go ahead for the prosecution of Kropha and Samria for the offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
While Kropha was the then joint secretary in MOC, Samria was the then Director (CA-I), MoC.