Former Coal Secretary H C Gupta and four others convicted in Coal scam case

New Delhi: Former coal secretary H C Gupta and two others were convicted in a coal scam case by special court on Friday.

K S Kropha, then Joint secretary and K C Samaria, then Director were also convicted along with other’s by Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar, in the irregularities of the alleged allotment of Thesgora-B Rudrapuri coal block to KSSPL in Madhya Pradesh.

The Court is yet to pronounce the order on May 22.

Amit Goyal, CA was acquitted in the case by the Court. Along with Gupta, Kropha and Samria, The special court has also convicted The Firm KSSPL and also its managing director Pawan Kumar Ahluwalia.

During the hearing, The CBI alleged that KSSPL’s proposal was not in accordance with the guidelines issued and that should have been rejected by the Ministry, but the then Ministry gave the approval.

CBI charged the firm for misrepresentation of its net worth and existing capacity, adding to it also said that State Government did not recommend this firm for any allocation of coal block.

However, Gupta denied the allegations during the arguments.

The court in October last year, framed charges against Gupta observing he deliberately kept Manmohan Singh, former PM in the “dark”, who consciously violated the law and the trust placed in him on the issue of coal block allocation.

Around eight different charge sheets have been filed against Gupta and proceedings are going on individually. The Supreme Court recently dismissed his plea seeking joint trial in all these cases, as reported in DC.