Coal scam: Convicted RSPL officials get up to 3 years in jail

New Delhi: A special court on Wednesday awarded varying jail terms of up to three years to three officials of Rathi Steel and Power Ltd (RSPL) who were convicted in a coal scam case pertaining to irregularities in allocation of Kesla North coal block in Chhattisgarh to the firm.

Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar sentenced RSPL's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Udit Rathi and Managing Director (MD) Pradeep Rathi to three years imprisonment while AGM Kushal Aggarwal was awarded two years in jail. They were taken into custody after their conviction yesterday.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh each on RSPL and its CEO, Rs 25 lakh on the MD and Rs 5 lakh on the AGM.

In the second conviction in the coal scam, RSPL and the three of its officials were yesterday held guilty with the court observing that they had "deceived" the government by making false representation even before the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The court had convicted them of the offences including cheating (section 420) and criminal conspiracy (section 120-B) of IPC.

It had earlier framed charges against the firm and the 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 for the alleged offences of criminal conspiracy and cheating.

All the accused had denied the charges against them.