Coal scam: Two govt officials move court seeking alteration of charge

New Delhi: Two government officials, facing prosecution in a coal blocks allocation scam case, today moved a special court seeking alteration of charges framed against them. The counsel for Executive Secretary Goutam Kumar Basak and Manager (F&A) Soumen Chatterjee of the Ministry of Steel’s Joint Plant Committee, told the court that it should alter the charges framed against them as Delhi High Court has already quashed charges against Chhattisgarh-based Prakash Industries Ltd (PIL) and its director. He argued that according to the high court order, charge of criminal conspiracy was not made out and the CBI should now explain as to how it would proceed with the trial. [caption id=“attachment_1696261” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Agencies[/caption] “If the CBI still says there was conspiracy between these two accused (Basak and Chatterjee), they have to spell out before the court as to how this charge is made out,” the defence counsel argued. “Under the new facts and circumstances after the Delhi High Court’s order, it would not be possible for this court to conduct trial against these two accused,” the application seeking alteration of charges framed against them said. The court after hearing the arguments posted the matter for further arguments on November 25. The court was hearing a case in which the high court on September 5 had quashed the charges of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy framed against PIL and its Director (Corporate Affairs) AK Chaturvedi. The trial court had earlier framed charges of cheating, forgery and corruption against Goutam Kumar Basak and Soumen Chatterjee for allegedly giving a misleading report on the production capacity of PIL. The Ministry of Steel’s Joint Plant Committee was set up in 1964 by the government for formulating guidelines for production, allocation and pricing of iron and steel and is the only institution which is officially empowered by the Ministry of Steel to collect data on iron and steel industry. During the hearing, the counsel for the two public servants, also said that if the CBI would not prefer an appeal against the high court order, he would move the superior court challenging the order. He argued that Basak and Chatterjee had given their report according to documents supplied to them by PIL during the inspection visit in the firm’s plant. “We never said the report was wrong. We gave the report on the basis of data made available to us at the plant. No physical verification was done by us. According to me, my mandate was to give report on whatever documents were given to me,” the counsel submitted on being as by the court what was the mandate of appointment of the two officials. He also said that the report of the officials talked about the production in the plant till that date and it does not say about physical position of the production. The court had earlier discharged the firm and its director in view of the high court’s order quashing the charges. The CBI prosecutor had earlier told the court that according to the high court order, charges of criminal conspiracy under the IPC read with provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act remain on the other two accused who will now face the trial. The agency had also informed the court that CBI was in the process of preferring an appeal against the high court order. According to the CBI, on the basis of alleged inflated production figures and “bogus reports” submitted by PIL, Basak and Chatterjee, the screening committee allotted the captive coal block at Urtan in Madhya Pradesh and at Vijay Central in Chhattisgarh to PIL. In its chargesheet, the CBI had said PIL in connivance with Hind Energy and Coal Benefication (India) Pvt Ltd and various officials of the Ministry of Coal, Ministry of Steel and the JPC, got allocated the coal blocks “using false and fabricated documents”. It had told the court that on an application by PIL in January 1998, Chotia coal mining block at Chhattisgarh too was allotted to it. The agency had alleged that PIL, through its April 12, 2007 application, again applied for allotment of mining block for its steel plant at Champa in Chhattisgarh for expansion of its capacity, and to justify its claim, it filed false and fabricated copies of central excise returns showing inflated production figures from December 2007 to March 2008. The CBI’s chargesheet had alleged that PIL had mined coal from Chotia mining block in excess and diverted approximately 50 percent of it to the black market and earned a profit of about Rs 22.7 crore. PTI