Coal scam: Court to hear plea on closure report on October 9

New Delhi: A special court has fixed October 9 for considering a closure report in which CBI has concluded that no undue benefit was given to M/s JLD Yavatmal Energy Ltd by the Coal Ministry in allocation of coal block to it. CBI, in its closure report, said that nothing substantial has emerged to establish cheating and criminal conspiracy among officials of the Ministry of Coal and M/s JLD Yavatmal Energy Ltd’s directors, including Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda. The agency filed the closure report in the case in which it had earlier lodged an FIR against JLD Yavatmal Energy Ltd, its directors Vijay Darda, his son Devendra Darda, his brother Rajendra Darda, Manoj Jayaswal, Anand Jayaswal and Abhishek Jayaswal and unknown persons under sections 420 (cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC. [caption id=“attachment_1697221” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] The case was transferred to the court of special CBI judge Bharat Parashar, who is exclusively dealing with the cases of coal scam. He has kept the closure report for consideration. The agency had earlier filed the closure report in the court of chief metropolitan magistrate. CBI, which had earlier alleged in its FIR that JLD Yavatmal wrongfully concealed previous allocation of four coal blocks to its group companies in 1999-2005, has now said in its closure report that even if it would have revealed the fact, it would not have been disqualified for getting the coal blocks. The closure report said investigation could not establish that JLD Yavatmal Energy Ltd has obtained any undue benefit from the Ministry of Coal with regard to its non-declaration of previous coal blocks. The closure report said investigation has revealed that in the guidelines issued by the Coal Ministry as well as the minutes of the 35th meeting of the Screening Committee, there was no mention of the fact that allocation of earlier coal block either to the applicant company or group or associate company would be a disqualification for getting a fresh coal block. “Even if the applicant company would have mentioned the fact that its group/associate company were previously allocated coal blocks, the same would not have been a disqualification for the company in getting a fresh coal block allocated,” the report said. “Also, as per the records there was no independent deliberation by the Screening Committee with regard to the previous allocation of coal blocks to the applicant companies and no company was selected or rejected on the basis of previous allocation,” it said. It added that after considering the guidelines for allocation of coal blocks, the Screening Committee recommended allocation of Fatehpur East Coal Block at Chhattisgarh to JLD along with RKM Powergen, Visa Power Ltd, Green Infrastructure and Vandana Vidyut. The CBI has also denied in its report any evidence of mala fide association between the company and any public servant and no evidence has emerged during probe to substantiate the allegation that JLD Yavatmal in order to embellish its claim for allocation of coal block wrongly claimed to be promoted, controlled and managed by Lokmat Group and IDFC Ltd and claimed net worth of Rs 2,544.19 crore of IDFC and Rs 73.38 crore of Lokmat group in its support. It said “no evidence has emerged to show that the company was given any undue benefit by the Ministry of Coal in this regard”. PTI