In the second conviction in the coal scam, Rathi Steel and Power Ltd (RSPL) and three of its officials were today held guilty by a special court which held that they had "deceived" the government by making false representation even before the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The court observed that these accused, in pursuance to the conspiracy hatched, deceived the Ministry of Coal on the basis of false representation regarding the issue of land showing a higher stage of progress made by them towards establishing end-use project to procure allotment of coal block in its favour.
"The false representation thus continued to hold ground even when the file containing recommendation of Screening Committee went to the Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) as Minister-in-Charge, Coal, Government of India for final approval and thus it was primarily the Government which was deceived into making allotment of a coal block in favour of M/s RSPL while believing all such representation to be true, which in fact were not," Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar said in his 107-page judgement.
The court held the firm and its officials--Managing Director Pradeep Rathi, Chief Executive Officer Udit Rathi and AGM Kushal Aggarwal--guilty of offences of cheating (section 420) and criminal conspiracy (section 120-B) of the IPC in the case pertaining to irregularities in allocation of Kesla North coal block in Chhattisgarh to the firm.
After holding them guilty, the court heard the arguments on the quantum of sentence during which the CBI sought maximun sentence while the convicts prayed for leniency.
The court, which took the convicted officials into custody, reserved its order on the quantum of sentence for tomorrow.
An offence under section 420 of IPC entails a maximum punishment of upto seven years along with fine.
In its verdict, the court noted that all the necessary ingredients of offence of cheating coupled with dishonestly inducing delivery of property was clearly proved beyond shadows of all reasonable doubts.
"Ministry of Coal (MoC), Government of India clearly stood cheated on account of dishonest acts of accused persons resulting in allotment of 'Kesla North Coal Block' in favour of company of accused persons i.E. M/s RSPL," the court said.
In the first conviction, the court had in April awarded a four-year jail term to Jharkhand Ispat Private Limited (JIPL) directors R C Rungta and R S Rungta in a coal block allocation scam case.
It had also imposed Rs five lakh fine on each of the convicts held guilty for deceiving and defrauding government to bag a coal block in Jharkhand.
In today's verdict, the court added that "the accused persons hatched a criminal conspiracy so as to cheat MOC, GoI in order to procure allocation of a coal block in favour of M/s RSPL."
"The entire modus operandi adopted by the accused persons in procuring allotment of a coal block... Speak volumes about the agreement arrived at by the accused persons amongst themselves so as to cheat MOC, Government of India in order to procure allocation of a coal block in favour of M/s RSPL," the court said.
It further said that "it was primarily the Government which was deceived into making allotment of a coal block in favour of the firm while believing all such representation to be true, which in fact were not."
"All the necessary ingredients of the offence of cheating coupled with dishonestly inducing delivery of property having been carried out in furtherance of the common object of a criminal conspiracy hatched by the accused persons thus clearly stands proved beyond shadows of all reasonable doubts," it said.
The court had earlier framed charges against RSPL and its three officials for the alleged offence of criminal conspiracy read with cheating under the IPC, observing that they had conspired and furnished wrong information to get coal block and misappropriated nationalised natural resources.
The three accused were earlier granted bail after they had appeared in court pursuant to summons.
CBI had charge sheeted RSPL and Udit Rathi as accused for the alleged offences of criminal conspiracy and cheating.
All the accused had denied the charges against them.
