CBI court grants interim bail to 5 fresh accused in Naveen Jindal coal block case

New Delhi: The special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Monday granted interim bail till May 4 to five fresh accused named by the CBI in its supplementary charge sheet in a coal scam case against Congress leader and industrialist Naveen Jindal and others.

Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar granted the interim bail to accused- Jindal Steel's adviser Anand Goel, Gurgaon-based Green Infra's Vice-President Siddharth Madra, Nihar Stocks Ltd Director BSN Suryanarayan, Mumbai-based KE International's Chief Financial Officer Rajeev Aggarwal and Mumbai's Essar Power Ltd Executive Vice-Chairman Sushil Kumar Maroo - on a personal bond of Rs one lakh and one surety of the like amount each. 

The case pertains to allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand. 

During the hearing, the CBI opposed the regular bail plea of two of the five accused persons - Goel and Maroo - alleging that they tried to hamper the investigation, destroy evidence and threatened witness Suresh Singhal in the case many times.

The CBI lawyer alleged that both the accused are a threat to the witness (Suresh Singhal) and have also allegedly slapped him in Delhi's Patiala House Court premises.

CBI also informed the court that it's in possession of two e-mails which were exchanged between Sushil Kumar Maroo and Suresh Singhal totally proving the allegations.

The lawyer representing the accused claimed that the charges directed by the CBI are one-sided. He said that neither were they provided with the copy of e-mails nor any document substantiating the allegations made by the CBI.

The court has now put up the matter for hearing on whether to grant regular bail to these accused in the light of CBI's fresh allegations after counsel for both the accused sought time to argue on this point, saying they were not supplied with related documents in the case. 

The court has also directed the CBI to provide defense lawyer with the documents supporting the claim that Suresh Singhal was threatened by the accused.

It will also hear regular bail pleas of Madra, Aggarwal and Suryanarayan which were not opposed by the CBI 

The names of these five persons were revealed by Singhal, a chartered accountant, who was earlier chargesheeted by the CBI as accused in the case. 

The court had summoned the five new persons as accused after taking cognisance of the supplementary charge sheet filed by the CBI on March 24. 

Besides Jindal, the case also involves former Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao and ex-Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda. 

The court had earlier directed the agency to expeditiously file its further probe report.

With PTI inputs