New Delhi : Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was kept in the ‘dark’ by then Coal Secretary H C Gupta who had prima facie violated the law and the trust imposed on him on the issue of coal block allocation, a special court said on Wednesday.
Ordering framing of charges against Gupta and five others for their alleged roles in the allocation of coal block to Kamal Sponge Steel and Power Ltd (KSSPL), the court noted CBI’s allegations that Gupta had withheld complete and proper information from Prime Minister Office (PMO) on the matter.
“Thus when accused H C Gupta withheld complete and proper information from the PMO either in his comments made while submitting the recommendation of the Screening Committee or in the meeting held with T K A Nair (principal secretary to PM) so the contention of senior PP that Minister of Coal (Singh) was also kept in dark by him does not appear to be without force,” Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar noted in his order.
“Accused H C Gupta thus prima facie acted in violation of the duty so imposed upon him and also in contravention of the directions of law in which such trust was to be discharged,” the court said while posting the case for October 14 for formal framing of charges.
Besides Gupta, the court ordered framing of charges against two senior public servants, K S Kropha and K C Samria, firm KSSPL, its Managing director Pawan Kumar Ahluwalia and chartered account Amit Goyal. Kropha was the then Joint Secretary in Ministry of Coal, while Samria was the then Director (Coal Allocation-I) section in the ministry.
In its 56-page order, the court noted that being the then Chairman of the screening committee, Gupta was well aware that the Minister of Coal will proceed to accord approval primarily on the basis of recommendation made by the committee or the comments, if any, made by the Ministry.
“Thus, accused H C Gupta not only in his capacity as Secretary (Coal) but also as Chairman, Screening Committee abused his position in furtherance of the criminal conspiracy hatched with the other accused persons so as to facilitate allocation of impugned coal block in favour of accused company M/s KSSPL in contravention of the guidelines issued by Ministry of Coal (MoC),” it said. —pti
