New Delhi : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached fresh assets worth Rs 101 crore of a Maharashtra-based firm in connection with its money laundering probe in the coal scam case, the agency said on Friday.
It issued a provisional order for attachment of an office building worth Rs 80 crore at the integrated steel plant of Jayaswal Neco Industries in the Siltara area of Raipur in Chhattisgarh and land worth Rs 21 crore in Bilaspur district.
The total value of the attached assets was Rs 101 crore, the agency said. It had attached assets worth Rs 206 crore of the firm last year.
The ED had booked a criminal case against the firm and others to probe money laundering charges, on the basis of an FIR lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe alleged irregularities in the coal blocks allocation. The CBI had earlier filed a charge sheet against the firm.
The ED said the company had obtained the Gare Palma-sub block IV/4 coal block in Chhattisgarh “through fraudulent means by making misrepresentation” and “resorted to illegal use of coal mined in their captive power plant (CPP) without any permission from the central government”.
“As per the allocation letter, the company had to wash the coal in a washery to 20 per cent ash level and the middling/rejects produced during the process were to be used in its CPP.
“However, the coal was used directly in their sponge iron plant and CPP, without setting up a washery or without any approval for its use in the CPP directly,” the agency alleged.
It added that the probe showed the company had “extracted 3.8 million tonnes of coal during 2006-2015 from the stated coal field”.
Charge sheet filed against Jindal
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday filed a charge sheet against industrialist and Congress leader Naveen Jindal and 14 others for alleged money laundering in a case pertaining to irregularities in allocation of a Jharkhand coal block. In its final report filed before special judge Bharat Parashar, ED alleged that Jindal’s firm — Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL) — along with others influenced the screening committee to allot the coal block by investing more than Rs two crore in illegal gratification.
The court put up the charge sheet, filed through special public prosecutor N K Matta and advocate Tarannum Cheema against Jindal and 14 other accused, for consideration on August 14.
The case pertains to the allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand.
