Coal block scam: Delhi court summons Naveen Jindal, former Coal Secretary

A Delhi court has summoned industrialist and Lok Sabha MP Naveen Jindal, former coal secretary P.C. Parekh and others after taking cognisance of a CBI chargesheet alleging irregularities in the allocation of Gare Palma IV/1 coal block in Chhattisgarh. “The instant chargesheet, which is stated to be one of the most voluminous chargesheets of coal block cases, has been filed by CBI after more than a decade of registration of the FIR," Special Judge Sunena Sharma said, adding that there is sufficient material for the court to proceed in the matter. The court summoned on July 17 M/s Jindal Steel and Power Ltd, its managing director Naveen Jindal, Parekh, Rakesh Kumar Jindal, Ram Kishore, S.K. Agarwal and M/s Jindal Strips Ltd (now M/s Nalwa Sons Investments Ltd). The case stems from a preliminary inquiry registered by the CBI based on directions from the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) on September 26, 2012. The Judge said that the chargesheet contains 778 documents running into more than one lakh pages and 234 listed witnesses. Besides the lengthy investigation involving voluminous records and numerous witnesses, the time taken by the competent authorities in according the requisite prosecution sanction in respect of the accused public servants is cited as one of the major reasons for the inordinate delay in filing the chargesheet, the Judge noted in the order on cognisance dated June 1. “Having considered the submissions of the senior public prosecutor for CBI in the light of the above allegations contained in the chargesheet, the specific role attributed to each of the accused and the documents filed in support thereof, including the statements of witnesses… there exists sufficient material for this court to proceed in the matter," Judge Sharma said. “Accordingly, I take cognisance of the alleged offences under IPC sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy) read with 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent) and 420 (cheating) and 13(2) read with 13(1)(c) and 13(1)(d) of PC Act, 1988 and substantive offences thereof,” the Judge added. Section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act provisions deals with criminal misconduct by a public servant. Section 13(1)(c) applies if a public servant dishonestly or fraudulently misappropriates, converts, or allows others to use any property entrusted to them or under their control in their official capacity. Section 13(1)(d applies if a public servant abuses their position to obtain for themselves or any other person any valuable thing or pecuniary advantage without public interest, while Section 13(2) is the punishment clause. The CVC had forwarded two complaints of the then MP Sandeep Dixit alleging malpractices in the allocation of 24 coal blocks between 1993 and 2005. Based on the inquiry against Gare Palma IV/1 coal block allocated to M/s Jindal Strips Ltd, CBI registered the present case against the accused persons in 2014. The court noted that CBI’s probe revealed several layers of alleged irregularities, such as mining being conducted outside the coordinates sanctioned by the screening committee, mining over and above the sanctioned limit, sale of coal fines and washery rejects to sister concerns and private parties without permission and that minutes of a 2005 meeting were falsely recorded to regularise some irregularities.