A special court today took the CBI to task for not supplying all documents to the accused and directed it to provide them all the papers the agency has placed on record in a coal block allocation scam case in which former Coal Secretary H C Gupta and others were summoned.
The direction came after some of the accused informed the court that while 241 documents were mentioned in the list supplied to them by the investigating officer (IO) along with the final report, the CBI had given them only 163 documents.
The IO told the court that the CBI was relying on 163 documents which were supplied to the accused along with the charge sheet.
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However, Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar said, "since you (CBI) have filed 241 documents in the court, you have to give it to them (accused)."
"...I deem it appropriate that as document containing the list of 241 documents were placed on record, copies of all these documents be supplied to the accused," the judge noted in the order.
When the court asked how much time would CBI need to supply the documents to the accused, the IO initially said it will take three weeks time to supply these documents.
To this, the judge observed, "This is not done. Absolutely not done. ... This is happening not only in this case but in all other cases too. The IOs are just filing entire documents in the court so that court looks after it."
The IO, however, said he would supply the documents to the accused as soon as possible after which the court fixed the matter for scrutiny of documents on September 24.
The case pertains to alleged irregularities in allocation of Rampia and dip side of Rampia coal block in Odisha to M/s Navbharat Power Pvt Ltd (NPPL), now known as Brahmani Thermal Power Pvt Ltd (BTPPL), in January 2008.
Besides Gupta, two senior public servants, K S Kropha and K C Samria, BTPPL's chairman, P Trivikrama Prasad and its vice chairman Y Harish Chandra Prasad are accused in the case along with the firm. These accused are presently out on bail.
