On Wednesday, a Delhi court sentenced former Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda, his son Devender Darda, and businessman Manoj Kumar Jayaswal to four years in jail for their involvement in a case related to irregularities in the allocation of a coal block in Chhattisgarh. The court found them guilty of cheating the government of India to obtain the coal block.
Immediately after the court order, all three convicts were taken into custody. The court also handed three-year jail terms to ex-coal secretary H C Gupta and two former senior public servants, K S Kropha and K C Samria, in connection with the same case. However, the three convicts were granted bail by the court to allow them to appeal their conviction and punishment before the high court.
Furthermore, the court imposed fines on the company, JLD Yavatmal Energy Pvt Ltd, which was convicted in the case. The company was fined Rs 50 lakh. The Dardas and Jayaswal were fined Rs 15 lakh each, while the other three convicts were directed to pay a fine of Rs 20,000 each.
The case pertains to the allocation of a coal block, and the court noted that the convicts had obtained the block through fraudulent means, leading to substantial losses for the nation.
This marks the 13th conviction in the coal scam, a major scandal that rocked the former Manmohan Singh government. On July 13, the court had found the seven accused guilty under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of the IPC, as well as relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
During the sentencing arguments, the CBI sought the maximum punishment of seven years for the convicts. The agency claimed that Darda and his son had met the then CBI director, Ranjit Sinha, at his residence to obstruct the investigation. It’s worth noting that the Supreme Court had established a special investigation team (SIT) to look into allegations against Sinha of attempting to influence the coal scam investigations. Sinha passed away in 2021 due to Covid-related complications.
The court had previously rejected a closure report submitted by the CBI in the case on November 20, 2014, and directed the federal probe agency to re-investigate it. The court found that Vijay Darda, the chairperson of the Lokmat Group, had misrepresented facts in letters written to the then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, to secure the Fatehpur (East) coal block in Chhattisgarh for JLD Yavatmal Energy Pvt Ltd.
The coal scam scandal came to light in 2012 when the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) criticized the government for inefficient allocation of 194 coal blocks to public sector enterprises and private companies between 2004 and 2009 for captive use in a non-transparent manner. The CAG suggested that competitive bidding should have been used instead of direct allocation. The scandal involved allegations of politicians lobbying for private entities to secure coal blocks, resulting in significant losses for the exchequer. The initial estimated loss by the CAG was Rs 10.6 lakh crore, later revised to Rs 1.86 lakh crore.
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