Coal scam: Court fixes 10 July for consideration of CBI's report

New Delhi: A special court will consider next month the supplementary final report filed by CBI in connection with a coal scam case allegedly involving Vikash Metal and Power Limited (VMPL) and others. The court said it needed some time to go through the report filed by the CBI before passing any order and posted the matter for 10 July. “Certain clarification has been sought (from CBI). Put up for July 10,” Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar said. [caption id=“attachment_2273242” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Getty Image[/caption] Earlier, the court had said that it would consider the supplementary final report only after some finality was arrived at on the issue of according sanction to prosecute government servants by the competent authority. CBI had filed the supplementary final report on 7 April in pursuance to an order passed in October last year in which the court had refused to accept the closure report and had directed the agency to further probe the case. The case pertains to alleged irregularities in allocation of Moira and Madhujore (North and South) coal blocks in West Bengal to VMPL. The case allegedly involves VMPL and its officials in which they are accused of making false claims relating to land allocation to get undue advantage in coal block allocation. The FIR in the case was registered in September 2012. CBI, however, had later filed a closure report saying the charges against VMPL or its directors or even against public servants could not be substantiated during its probe. The court, in its 15 October last year’s order, had noted that it would have taken cognisance of offences of criminal conspiracy and cheating against the firm and its directors or others involved, but the alleged role of officers of the Coal Ministry and other public servants in the entire process needed to be further carried out. The FIR was registered against VMPL, its directors, including Vimal Patni, Vikash Patni and Anand Patni, and Anand Mallick who was the authorised signatory for the company. They were booked for alleged offences under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating) of the IPC. CBI, in its FIR, had said that VMPL had wrongly claimed it had been allocated 300 acres of land in Begusarai in Bihar by the Bihar Area Development Authority. The agency had found that the land was de-allocated and directors of the firm had failed to inform the screening committee members about it, it had said. PTI