(THE NEWSMAN OF INDIA.COM)
New Delhi, 26.10.2020: The Special Judge, CBI for Coal Cases, New Delhi has today sentence Mahendra Kumar Agarwalla, then Director of a private company to undergo three years Rigorous Imprisonment with fine of Rs. 60 lakh; Dilip Ray, the then Minister of State for Coal to undergo three years RI with fine of Rs. 10 lakh; Pradip Kumar Banerjee, the then Additional Secretary, Ministry of Coal to undergo three years RI with fine of Rs. 2 lakh; Nitya Nand Gautam, the then Advisor (Project), Ministry of Coal to undergo three years RI with fine of Rs. 2 lakh and M/s Castron Technologies Ltd., Dhanbad to pay a fine of Rs. 60 lakh & M/s Castron Mining Ltd. to pay a fine of Rs. 10 lakh in a case related to allocation of Brahmadiha Coal Block situated in District Giridih (Jharkhand).

CBI had registered a case on 07/01/2014 against M/s Castron Technologies Ltd. and others related to allocation of Brahmadiha Coal Block in District Giridh (Jharkhand) to M/s Castron Technologies Ltd. (CTL), Dhanbad. It was alleged that M/s Castron Technologies Ltd, Dhanbad, (then Bihar, now in Jharkhand); M/s Castron Mining Ltd., Kolkata and then Directors of these companies conspired among themselves and with the public servants with a view to cheat the Government of India in the matter of allocation of Brahmadiha Coal Block. It was further alleged that in furtherance of the said conspiracy, M/s Castron Technologies Ltd. was allocated Brahmadih Coal Block situated in District Giridih (then Bihar, now in State of Jharkhand) by way of abuse of official positions of concerned public servants.

During investigation, it was revealed that the said company was allegedly given undue favour by violating the guidelines framed for allocation of Brahmadiha coal block by the said public servants. Investigation also revealed that the company was to establish the end use plant for consuming the coal but it did not establish the same. It was also alleged that the Brahmadiha Coal Block was not included in the list of captive coal mining at any point of time.

After thorough investigation, a charge sheet was filed against the said 06 accused. In this case, in addition to the documentary evidence, CBI had examined around 51 prosecution witnesses including 19 witnesses through their affidavits.

The Trial Court found the said accused guilty and convicted them on 06.10.2020.