Coal scam: CBI says agency waiting for sanction to prosecute govt servants

New Delhi: The CBI on Thursday told a special court that it was awaiting response of the competent authority on the issue of considering according sanction to prosecute public servants allegedly involved in a coal scam case relating to allocation of blocks to Navbharat Power Pvt Ltd (NPPL). The investigating officer (IO) said that they have sent relevant records of the case to the competent authority. [caption id=“attachment_2150455” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “]  Representational image. Image courtesy: GettyImages.[/caption] “It has been submitted that the necessary record has been submitted to the competent authority for considering according of sanction to prosecute the public servants and the same is still awaited,” Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar said and fixed the matter for further hearing on 21 April. The CBI was earlier directed by the court to further probe the matter in which it had filed a charge sheet against NPPL, its Managing Director and Vice-Chairman Y Harish Chandra Prasad and Chairman P Trivikrama Prasad. The court, in its order passed on November 12, 2014, had said that the acts of former Coal Secretary H C Gupta and two other public servants overlooking alleged misrepresentation by NPPL for acquiring coal block in Rampia in Odisha prima facie amounted to criminal misconduct. The court had differed from CBI’s conclusion that no malafide intention was found on the part of public servants, saying it was prima facie clear that decision of allocating coal block to NPPL was taken by officers of Ministry of Coal (MOC) and screening committee without keeping public interest in mind. The court had also asked CBI to place before sanctioning authority the records of the case for considering the issue of according sanction to prosecute public servants involved for the offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The court has kept pending the final reports filed by the agency in which it had earlier chargesheeted NPPL and two of its executives while a supplementary final report was later on filed saying no offence was found to have been committed by the public servants. The charge sheet was filed against NPPL and its officials for offences under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating) of IPC for allegedly misrepresenting facts, including inflated net worth, to acquire coal block. CBI had earlier alleged that the net worth of the firm applying for coal blocks was an important factor to determine its financial strength and NPPL had fraudulently claimed in its application that it was supported by Globeleq Singapore Pvt Ltd, Navbharat Ventures Ltd and Mahalaxmi Group Ltd. PTI