Coal scam: Rathi Steel, 3 officials convicted; quantum of sentence to be declared today

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: A special court will on Wednesday deliver its order on quantum of sentence over the second conviction in the coal scam.

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 convicted Udit Rathi, Pradeep Rathi, 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.

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.

Senior Public Prosecutor V.K. Sharma requested the court to award maximum punishment to the convicts.

Defence counsel of the accused sought leniency on the basis of their good conduct during the trial.

With Agencies Inputs