The CBI on Thursday sought maximum punishment from a Delhi court for former Coal Secretary H C Gupta and former joint Secretary in the Ministry of Coal (MoC), K S Kropha in a coal scam case related to irregularities in the allocation of a coal block in Maharashtra. Special Judge Arun Bhardwaj, who reserved order on the quantum of punishment for August 8, had on July 29 convicted Gupta and Kropha for criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating, and corruption in the case related to the allocation of Lohara East coal block.
During the argument on Thursday, the probe agency told the court that due to the impact of the scam, companies are not coming forward to mine the coal blocks and despite ample coal “provided by the mother earth, we are not able to extract coal and consequently, there is a shortage of coal, and we are compelled to import coal from Indonesia and Australia.”
