New Delhi : A special court on Friday granted bail to Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL) Chairman Naveen Jindal, former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda, former minister of state for coal Dasari Narayan Rao, former coal secretary H C Gupta and six others in a coal block allocation case.
Jindal, Rao, Koda, Gupta and others appeared as accused before the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court here and moved pleas for seeking bail. Special judge Bharat Parashar granted bail to all the 10 accused individuals on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh each with one surety of the like amount. The accused have been directed not to leave India without the court’s permission and fixed the date for further hearing on June 1.
Besides Jindal, Rao, Koda and Gupta, the other accused who were granted bail are Suresh Singhal, Director of New Delhi Exim Pvt Ltd, Rajeev Jain, Director of Jindal Realty Pvt Ltd, Girish Kumar Suneja and Radha Krishna Saraf, both Directors of Gagan Sponge Iron Pvt Ltd (GSIPL), K Ramakrishna Prasad, Managing Director of Sowbhagya Media Ltd and chartered accountant Gyan Swaroop Garg.
Besides these ten accused, the authorised representatives of five accused firms — Jindal Steel and Pvt Ltd (JSPL), Jindal Realty Pvt Ltd, GaganInfraenergy Ltd (formerly known as GSIPL), Sowbhagya Media Ltd and New Delhi Exim Pvt Ltd — also appeared before the court.
Senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, appearing for Jindal, told the court that he had fully co-operated with the investigative agency during the course of the investigation and there was no apprehension that he would abscond or flee from justice.
The counsel representing other nine individual accused assured the court that there was no likelihood that any one of them will abscond.
“The court was informed that there was no loss or gain to anyone as no exploration could be undertaken in the said coal block because of intense naxal activities in that area. The company has not violated any rules and regulations and allocation was made to the company purely on merit. The company has full faith in judiciary and is confident to come out clean and stand vindicated, upon outcome of the legal process, as there is no substantial case against any accused,” JSPL said in a statement here.
The bail plea was opposed by senior public prosecutor V K Sharma who said the witness could be influenced or evidenced tempered with as most accused in the case are high profile industrialists or politicians and the prosecution witnesses are mostly their employees.
The accused were summoned by the court in the case relating to the alleged irregularities in allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand to two Jindal group firms, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) and Gagan Sponge Iron Pvt Ltd (GSIPL) in 2008.
The CBI had filed a chargesheet against 15 accused, including five companies – JSPL and Jindal Realty Pvt Ltd being one of them — for an alleged conspiracy in securing the coal block. The accused were charge sheeted for alleged offences of criminal conspiracy and cheating, and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
In June 2013, the agency had carried out raids and registered a first information report (FIR) against Jindal and Rao for cheating, criminal conspiracy and misconduct in securing the block. CBI had also questioned Jindal after filing the case.
In its FIR, the agency had alleged, JSPL and Gagan Sponge Iron (another company owned by Jindal) had misrepresented facts and allegedly given wrong information about the company’s land, water supply and previous allocations, to secure the coal block.
