Coal scam: CBI awaits nod on sanction to prosecute MoC official

New Delhi: CBI on Tuesady informed a special court that they have not received any information from the competent authority regarding grant of sanction to prosecute a Ministry of Coal (MoC) official for his alleged role in a coal scam case allegedly involving Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda.

The agency said they have sent the relevant records to the competent authority for considering grant of sanction to prosecute the public servant in pursuance to the court's January 30 order.

"Senior public prosecutor submits that no information has been received from the competent authority regarding the records sent for considering according sanction to prosecute the public servant," Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar said and fixed the case for further hearing on May 22.

On January 30, the court had observed that former Minister of State for Coal Santosh Bagrodia, former Coal Secretary H C Gupta and MoC official L S Janoti had allegedly committed criminal misconduct and facilitated AMR Iron and Steel Pvt Ltd to unlawfully obtain a coal block.

It had asked CBI to further investigate the case in which the agency has chargesheeted Vijay Darda, his son Devendra Darda, Director of AMR Iron and Steel Pvt Ltd Manoj Jayaswal and the firm, as accused.

The court had noted in its order that Bagrodia, Gupta and Janoti had allegedly entered into a conspiracy with private parties in the allocation of Bander coal block in Maharashtra to AMR Iron and Steel Pvt Ltd.

It had said that out of the three, only Janoti was still in active government service and prior sanction of competent authority was required to prosecute him for offence punishable under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Regarding Janoti, the court had observed that he had allegedly prepared a "misleading note" on the issue relating to coal block allocation which in the overall facts and circumstances, appeared to be a deliberate move on his part to benefit AMR and its directors.

The chargesheet was filed against the accused on May 27, last year for alleged offences under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating) of IPC and under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The court had earlier granted bail to Vijay Darda, Devendra and Jayaswal after they had appeared before it in pursuance to the summons issued against them. Darda has denied the allegations against him.

Regarding AMR Iron and Steel Pvt Ltd, CBI had claimed in its FIR that the firm, in its application form for allocation of coal blocks, had "fraudulently" concealed the fact that its group firms had previously been allocated five coal blocks.