NEW DELHI: Delhi’s Special Court on Wednesday sentenced former Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda and his son Devender Darda to four years imprisonment in a case related to irregularities in the allocation of a coal block in Chhattisgarh.
Special Judge Sanjay Bansal also ordered three years imprisonment for ex-Coal Secretary H C Gupta, two senior public servants — KS Kropha and KC Samria in the corruption case. JLD Yavatmal Energy Pvt Ltd’s Director Manoj Kumar Jayaswal was also sentenced to four years imprisonment for the coal scam during the regime of Manmohan Singh led UPA government.
Special Judge Sanjay Bansal on July 13 held all of them guilty. The Court convicted them under offences under section 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and under the relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Earlier, the court accepted the submissions made by senior Public Prosecutor A P Singh, that the CBI was able to prove its case beyond all reasonable doubts. The court had said that Vijay Darda, the Chairman of Lokmat Group, had done so to get the Fatehpur (East) coal block in Chhattisgarh allotted to JLD Yavatmal Energy Pvt Ltd.
As per an earlier CBI statement, the coal scam is one of the biggest scams in the country and the impact of this scam is that companies are not coming forward to mine the coal blocks and despite it being available. Consequently, there is a shortage of coal. We are compelled to import coal from outside India.
CBI closure report
The court had on November 20, 2014 refused to accept a closure report submitted by the CBI in the case and directed the federal probe agency to investigate it afresh, stating that the ex- MP had “misrepresented” facts in letters written to the then PM Manmohan Singh, who held the coal portfolio