Coal scam: Court awards 3 years jail term to Rathi Steel CEO

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: A Special Court on Wednesday awarded 3 years jail term to MD and CEO of Rathi Steel and Power Ltd and 2 years jail to two other officials in a coal scam case.

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.

Yesterday, Rathi Steel and Power Ltd (RSPL) and three of its officials were held guilty by the special court which held that they had "deceived" the government by making false representation even before the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The court had convicted Managing Director Pradeep Rathi, Chief Executive Officer Udit Rathi and AGM Kushal Aggarwal and the company for the offence of hatching conspiracy to cheat, while Udit Rathi and the company were also held guilty of substantive charges of cheating.

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 court held the firm and its officials 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.

With PTI Inputs