A special court today fixed October 1 for hearing a coal block allocation case, in which the Delhi High Court recently quashed charges against Chhattisgarh-based Prakash Industries Ltd and its director.
The matter was fixed for October 1 after CBI said it required time to examine as to which of the alleged offences against the two remaining accused, who were public servants, should sustain and what evidence was to be led now.
"Senior public prosecutors for CBI, however, stated that as they have been appointed (recently), before proceeding further for recording of prosecution evidence they would first like to go through the file to examine for which of the offences the trial against the two public servants shall continue and what evidence is to be led now," Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar said.
The court also asked the CBI prosecutor and investigating officer to prepare a fresh list of witnesses and also mention the reason for examining them.
The High Court on September 5 had quashed the charges of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy framed against Prakash Industries Ltd (PIL) and its Director (Corporate Affairs) A K Chaturvedi.
The trial court had earlier framed charges of cheating, forgery and corruption against Executive Secretary Goutam Kumar Basak and Manager (F&A) Soumen Chatterjee of the Ministry of Steel's Joint Plant Committee (JPC) for allegedly giving misleading report on production capacity of PIL.
The JPC was set up in 1964 by the government for formulating guidelines for production, allocation and pricing of iron and steel and is the only institution which is officially empowered by the Ministry of Steel to collect data on iron and steel industry.
The trial court had also found prima facie evidence to frame charges against PIL and its Director Chaturvedi.
