New Delhi: A special court would begin daily hearings from February 16 on arguments regarding framing of charges in a coal block allocation case in which CBI has chargesheeted two top officials of Jharkhand Ispat Pvt Ltd (JIPL) and others as accused.
"Put up for consideration on charges on February 16," Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar said today and added that the matter would be heard on a day-to-day basis from the next date of hearing.
During the hearing, CBI submitted a verification report regarding death of two private persons -- Ramabatar Kedia and Naresh Mahto -- who were also summoned as accused in the case.
The court, after going through the report filed by the agency, abated the proceedings against Kedia and Mahto.
"Verification report of the death of Ramabatar Kedia and Naresh Mahto has been filed (by CBI) along with their death certificates. In view of the death certificate of these two accused, the proceedings against them stand abated," it said.
Directors of Jharkhand Ispat Pvt Ltd (JIPL) R S Rungta and R C Rungta were earlier granted bail by the court after they had appeared before it in pursuance to summons issued against them.
Besides Rungtas, Kedia and Mahto, the court had summoned as accused JIPL for the alleged offences punishable under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using a forged document as genuine) and 477-A (falsification of accounts) of the IPC.
They were summoned as accused in a case pertaining to allocation of North Dhadu coal block in Jharkhand to JIPL.
In its chargesheet, CBI alleged that it had found in the probe that JIPL had "grossly misrepresented" a number of aspects before Ministry of Steel (MoS) and Ministry of Coal (MoC) to inflate their claim, thereby inducing MoC officers and the screening committee to allocate coal block to them.
It had alleged that JIPL, along with three other firms, Electro Steel Casting Ltd, Adhunik Alloys and Power Ltd and Pawanjay Steel and Power Ltd, was jointly allocated North Dhadu coal block by the 27th and 30th screening committee.
In its charge sheet, CBI also claimed that no efforts were made by the screening committee to verify the applicant firm's claims, while the MoS also did not develop any methodology to assess the applicant companies.
It said some records of MoC relating to the case were stated to be missing and a separate preliminary enquiry has been launched by CBI.
CBI had said no involvement of any public servant was found in the entire process during its probe.
