Coalgate: Ex-coal secy passes buck to Manmohan Singh, CBI refutes

New Delhi: Former Coal Secretary H C Gupta on Monday told a special court that then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had given the “final approval” for allocation of coal block to Kamal Sponge Steel and Power Ltd (KSSPL), a charge refuted by CBI which said the then premier was “kept in the dark”. In his arguments, Gupta claimed he had “no dominion” over the natural resource and Singh, who was also holding the portfolio of Coal Ministry at that time, had given final approval for allocation of coal block. [caption id=“attachment_2265652” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Former PM Manmohan Singh. AFP[/caption] “Accused (Gupta) was only Coal Secretary and heading the screening committee, which was only a recommending body, and thus had no dominion over the natural resources of the country as the final approval was made by the Minister of Coal (Singh),” his counsel B S Mathur told Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar. The counsel was advancing arguments on framing of charges in the case pertaining to alleged irregularities in allocation of Thesgora-B Rudrapuri coal block in Madhya Pradesh to KSSPL. However, the CBI countered Gupta’s arguments contending that “the Coal Minister/Prime Minister was totally kept in the dark” and alleged that it was the then Coal Secretary who had “misled” the senior officials of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) - T K A Nair and Vini Mahajan. While Nair was the then principal secretary to the Prime Minister, Mahajan was the then director in PMO. “Gupta misled the PMO officials. He (Gupta) told T K A Nair and Vini Mahajan that everything was done as per merits of the companies,” senior public prosecutor V K Sharma said. The court concluded the hearing on arguments on framing of charges and fixed the matter for September 16 saying it would seek clarifications, if any, from CBI as well as the accused. During arguments, CBI told the court that the application of KSSPL seeking coal block should not have been considered by the screening committee as it was incomplete and even Madhya Pradesh government had not recommended the firm for the block. It said KSSPL’s Managing Director Pawan Kumar Ahluwalia had signed the application whereas chartered accountant Amit Goyal had appeared before the screening committee. Countering the CBI’s submissions, Gupta’s counsel said that around 1,400 applications were received by the Coal Ministry and there were very few officials to scrutinise them. He argued that Gupta cannot be “held responsible” for not scrutinising the applications as they were received in the office of the Director of CA-I section in the Ministry. “A uniform policy was adopted in all the matters. It was not arbitrary and no discrimination was made among any of the applicant firms,” he said. Similarly, the counsel appearing for two senior government officials - K S Kropha and K C Samria - told the court that there was no evidence on record warranting framing of charges against them in the case. Kropha, was the then Joint Secretary in the Ministry, while Samria was the then Director (Coal Allocation-I section) there. The counsel appearing for accused firm KSSPL, Ahluwalia and Goyal argued that there was no conspiracy among any of the accused and no evidence was placed by CBI before the court. Meanwhile, the agency argued that all the documents placed on record suggested that there was a conspiracy among the private persons and the public servants in the case. The court on October 13 last year had summoned Gupta, Kropha, Samria, Ahluwalia, Goyal and the company as accused in the case after refusing to accept CBI’s closure report. They were summoned for alleged offences under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servants) and 420 (cheating) of IPC and under relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The accused were earlier granted bail by the court. CBI had lodged an FIR against KSSPL, its officials and other unknown persons for alleged misrepresentation of facts, including inflated net worth, to acquire the coal block. PTI