NEW DELHI: A Delhi court will pronounce on July 26 the quantum of sentence for former MP Vijay Darda, ex-coal secretary HC Gupta and others in a case related to irregularities in the allocation of a coal block in Chhattisgarh. Special Judge Sanjay Bansal on Tuesday reserved the order after hearing arguments from the CBI as well as the accused persons.
In the 13th conviction in the coal scam, the scandal which rocked the erstwhile Manmohan Singh government, the court on July 13 convicted seven accused, including Darda and Gupta, under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of the IPC, and the Prevention of Corruption Act. The court also convicted Darda’s son Devender Darda, two senior public servants K S Kropha and K C Samria, M/s JLD Yavatmal Energy Pvt Ltd and its director Manoj Kumar Jayaswal.
The CBI sought maximum punishment, claiming that Darda and his son Devender Darda, also convicted in the case, had met former CBI director Ranjit Sinha at his residence to scuttle the investigation. The SC constituted an SIT to investigate Sinha’s role in prima facie allegations against him for trying to influence the probe in coal scam cases.CBI’s senior public prosecutor A P Singh further claimed that a witness in the case stated that he was threatened by Jayaswal, who tried to influence him to not depose against him.