Coal scam: Delhi court awards 4-year jail to ex-MP Vijay Darda, son for cheating government
New Delhi, July 26
A Delhi court on Wednesday awarded a four-year prison term to ex-Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda, his son Devender Darda and businessman Manoj Kumar Jayaswal in a case related to irregularities in the allocation of a coal block in Chhattisgarh, saying they obtained the coal block by cheating the central government.
As Special Judge Sanjay Bansal pronounced the order on sentence, all three convicts were immediately taken into custody. They were, however, granted bail by the court to enable them to challenge their conviction and sentence before the high court.
The court also awarded three-year jail terms to ex-coal secretary HC Gupta and two former senior public servants KS Kropha and KC Samria in the case.
It imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh on JLD Yavatmal Energy Pvt Ltd, which was convicted in the case and a fine of Rs 15 lakh each on the Dardas and Jayaswal. The other three convicts were directed to pay a fine of Rs 20,000 each.
“The present case relates to allocation of a coal block. The convicts had obtained the said block by committing cheating with the Govt. of India. Prosecution is justified in saying that the loss to the nation was huge,” the judge said.
This is the 13th conviction in the coal scam scandal which rocked the erstwhile Manmohan Singh government following a CAG report. The CAG initially estimated a massive loss of Rs 10.6 lakh crore to the exchequer, but its final report tabled in Parliament put the figure at 1.86 lakh crore. The CAG said instead of allocating the valuable natural resource in 194 coal blocks between 2004 and 2009 for captive use in a non-transparent way, the government should have gone for competitive bidding.
The Special Court had on July 13 held the seven accused guilty under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of the IPC, and certain provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The CBI demanded the maximum punishment of seven years for the convicts, alleging that Darda and his son had met the then CBI director Ranjit Sinha at his residence to scuttle the investigation.
The court had on November 20, 2014 rejected the CBI’s closure report and directed the agency to investigate it afresh, noting that the former MP had “misrepresented” facts in letters written to the then prime minister, Manmohan Singh, who held the coal portfolio.
Vijay Darda, the chairperson of the Maharashtra-based Lokmat Group, had done so to secure the Fatehpur (East) coal block in Chhattisgarh for JLD Yavatmal Energy Pvt Ltd, the court said.
JLD Yavatmal Energy Pvt Ltd was allotted Fatehpur (East) coal block by the 35th Screening Committee.
The CBI had alleged in its FIR that JLD Yavatmal had wrongfully concealed the previous allocation of four coal blocks to its group companies in 1999-2005. (With PTI Inputs)
