New Delhi: Industrialist Naveen Jindal and 14 others were Wednesday summoned as accused in a coal blocks allocation scam case by a special court which observed that the Congress leader had prima facie "manipulated entire government machinery" to procure undue allotment in Jharkhand.
Besides Jindal, the court also summoned as accused former Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao, ex-Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, ex-Coal Secretary Harish Chandra Gupta and others, including five companies, asking them to appear before it on May 22 after taking cognisance of CBI's charge sheet filed against them.
Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar observed that the charge sheet filed by the agency prima facie showed that Jindal had played a "pivotal role" in the conspiracy to procure allotment of Jharkhand's Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in favour of his two group firms, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) and Gagan Sponge Iron Pvt Ltd (GSIPL).
"Similarly, it is also prima facie clear that Naveen Jindal being the promoter of M/s JSPL and M/s GSIPL manipulated the entire government machinery both in the state of Jharkhand and in MOC (Ministry of Coal) so as to procure undue allotment of entire 'Amarkonda Murgadangal Coal Block' in the name of its two group companies," the court said.
"The final report prima facie shows the pivotal role played by him (Jindal) in the criminal conspiracy so as to procure allotment of impugned coal block in favour of its two companies i.E. M/s JSPL and M/s GSIPL," the court said in its 34-page order.
The court said prima facie offences under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with section 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 420 (cheating) of the IPC read with section 13(1)(c) and 13(1)(d) (criminal misconduct by a public servant) of the Prevention of Corruption Act were made out against all the 15 accused.
Section 409 of IPC entails life imprisonment as maximum punishment.
The five firms which have been summoned as accused by the court are JSPL, Jindal Realty Pvt Ltd, Gagan Infraenergy Ltd (formerly known as GSIPL), Sowbhagya Media Ltd and New Delhi Exim Pvt Ltd.
Besides Jindal, Rao, Koda and Gupta, the other individual accused summoned as accused are, Suresh Singhal, Director of New Delhi Exim Pvt Ltd, Rajeev Jain, Director of Jindal Realty Pvt Ltd, Girish Kumar Suneja and Radha Krishna Saraf, both Directors of GSIPL, K Ramakrishna Prasad, Managing Director of Sowbhagya Media Ltd and chartered accountant Gyan Swaroop Garg.
The court said that substantive offence of cheating was prima facie made out against Jindal, Saraf, Suneja, JSPL and Gagan Infraenergy Ltd.
It said substantive offences under section 409 of IPC and section 13(1)(c)/13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) were prima facie made out against Rao and Gupta while substantive offence under section 13(1)(d) of PCA was prima facie made out against Koda.
The court noted in its order that since the term of Koda and Rao as MLA and MP respectively have expired, no sanction under section 19 of the PCA was required to take cognizance of offences against them under the anti-corruption law.
Similarly, it said since Gupta has retired from government service no such sanction was required qua him as well.
Detailing the criminal conspiracy among the accused, the court said that as per CBI's probe, an amount of Rs two crore was transferred in favour of Sowbhagya Media Ltd, a company controlled by Dasari Narayan Rao, from Jindal Realty Pvt Ltd.
"The clandestine manner in which Rs two crore stood transferred in favour of M/s Sowbhagya Media Ltd, a company controlled by Dasari Narayan Rao, from M/s Jindal Realty Pvt Ltd, a Jindal group company, further prima facie shows the existence of a well planned criminal conspiracy between the private parties and the public servants involved in the entire coal block allocation process," the court said.
"The final report thus further states that from the aforesaid financial transactions it transpired that the company promoted by Dasari Narayan Rao received payment of Rs two crore from Naveen Jindal on account of undue favour shown by him in allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal Coal Block to Jindal Group of Companies," it said.
Regarding Koda, the court said he allegedly "arbitrarily" changed the names of companies "on his own" for recommending it to the MOC for allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block.
It said according to CBI's charge sheet, Koda had conspired with Jindal and had abused his official position to extend "undue benefits" to JSPL and GSIPL.
It said that it was found during the probe that GSIPL had allegedly misrepresented facts about its net worth in the feed back form submitted before the screening committee.
"However, the Screening Committee headed by H C Gupta, secretary coal, chose to overlook the aforesaid discrepancies and the factum of M/s GSIPL to be ineligible as per criteria being considered by MOP (Ministry of Power)/ CEA (Central Electricity Authority) i.E. The administrative Ministry and the fact that it was not recommended by MOP," it said.
"However, it will be also worthwhile to mention that H C Gupta, Secretary (Coal)/ Chairman, Screening Committee also prima facie committed the acts of omission and commission so as to benefit Jindal group of companies," it observed.
The court also said that Jindal, being the promoter of both JSPL and GSIPL, was a "beneficiary" of the benefits so acquired by the firms on account of the allocation of the coal block.
The court noted that the circumstances in which GSIPL was recommended by Koda for coal block allocation prima facie supports the conclusion arrived at by it.
"The manner in which MOS (Coal) Dasari Narayan Rao acted in the entire process or the Screening Committee headed by H C Gupta Secretary (Coal) chose to recommend its case further prima facie lends support to the aforesaid conclusion," it said.
"The entire process prima facie also indicates the hatching up of a well planned criminal conspiracy between the private parties involved as discussed above with Madhu Koda, the then Chief Minister, State of Jharkhand and H C Gupta Secretary (Coal) and Dasari Narayan Rao, MOS (Coal)," it said.
The court also observed that from the circumstances, it prima facie appeared that GSIPL had acted as a "front company" for JSPL to procure allotment of entire Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block.
The court said that JSPL was already engaged in generation of power, production of iron and steel but GSIPL was primarily an "investment company" and was not engaged in any specific end uses that is generation of power, production of iron and steel or cement.
It said that a three-member sub-group was constituted by the then Chief Secretary of Jharkhand A K Chugh to evaluate applications of firms for allocation of captive coal blocks and to suggest suitable applicants for making recommendation to the Ministry of Coal by the state government.
It said the sub-group had suggested that recommendation for Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block be made in favour of M/s Lanco Infratech Ltd, JSW Energy Ltd and JSPL in the ratio of 40 percent, 30 percent and 30 percent respectively.
The court noted that when this recommendation was put up before Koda, he "in pursuant to a criminal conspiracy hatched with Naveen Jindal, promoter of M/s JSPL and M/s GSIPL, asked the sub-group to change its recommendation in a particular manner."
When the sub-group refused to do so, Koda through a note of June 19, 2007 "arbitrarily changed" the names of companies for making recommendation to the MOC and the name of M/s JSW Energy Ltd was replaced with M/s GSIPL.
"The report under section 173 CrPC further states that the Jindal Group companies, however, wanted entire Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in their favour and were not willing to share the same with any other company," it noted.
Referring to CBI's probe, the court said on July 4, 2007, Niral Purti, then MLA of Jharkhand assembly, at the instance of Binod Sinha, a close associate of Koda, and one others made a complaint against M/s Lanco Infratech Co. Ltd alleging that its performance with respect to construction of roads in the state was unsatisfactory.
It said that two members of the sub-group examined the complaint and recommended withdrawal of recommendation earlier made in favour of M/s Lanco Infratech Co. Ltd and suggested that the share of JSPL from Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block be increased from 30 percent to 70 percent.
When this recommendation was placed before Chugh, he proposed that in place of Jindal Steel, 40 percent share of the coal block be given to a state PSU but Koda approved that 70 percent share of coal block may be given to M/s JSPL.
The court noted that according to laid down criteria, the Ministry of Power recommended in favour of Rosa Power supply Co Ltd and M/s Bhushan Energy Ltd for the coal block.
"The two companies M/s JSPL and M/s GSIPL were however not recommended by CEA (Central Electricity Authority) and in turn by MOP for allocation of any coal block in Jharkhand state because of poor preparedness of these companies qua their proposed end use projects," it noted in its order.
Detailing the role of Rao, the court observed that he had initiated a note dated July 27, 2007 to Gupta asking him to evaluate various applicant companies as per the past practices and "not only on the criteria of net-worth, progress regarding land acquisition and water tie-up etc for which MOP/CEA has been appraising various applications".
It said that the note was not put up before the screening committee "but the said note was stated to be important as it was made with a deliberate intention to favour M/s JSPL".
It also said it was found during the probe that GSIPL was "ineligible on the basis of net-worth as per the criteria adopted by MOP/CEA" and it also misrepresented about the details of earlier allocation of coal blocks to the group or associated companies.
The court said Gupta has been named in the charge sheet for having "overlooked the guidelines and basic criteria of net-worth of the companies of Naveen Jindal and recommending two companies for allotment of an entire coal block and that too despite poor preparedness of the two companies towards establishment of their end use project and being also not recommended by MOP".
"The role of H C Gupta, Secretary (Coal) and Dasari Narayan Rao, MOS (coal) also prima facie stands out as they were having dominion over the important nationalised natural resources i.E. Coal, of the country and by their aforesaid acts of omission and commission facilitated misappropriation of the said resources by Jindal group of companies and that too prima facie in complete disregard to public interest and the directions as were inbuilt in the trust so imposed upon them by law," the court noted.
Regarding the roles of other accused, the court said the facts and circumstances prima facie suggests that they were involved in the criminal conspiracy.
