Coalscam: JIPL misrepresented facts to acquire block, says CBI

Jharkhand Ispat Pvt Ltd (JIPL) and its officials, who have been chargesheeted in a coalscam case, had allegedly misrepresented facts to acquire North Dhadu coal block in Jharkhand, CBI told a special court on Monday.

CBI has chargesheeted JIPL, its two Directors R S Rungta and R C Rungta and others in the case pertaining to allocation of coal block to the accused firm. However, the accused today raised jurisdictional issue contending that as no offence punishable under the Prevention of Corruption Act was there in the case, the matter should be heard by a magisterial court.

The competence of the special court to try the case was raised when senior public prosecutor A P Singh was advancing arguments on framing of charges in the case by alleging that JIPL had given false information and inflated claims in their February 2004 application seeking allocation of coal block.

The prosecutor alleged that JIPL had "misrepresented" facts regarding the land required for establishing their proposed end use project as well as its installed capacity. CBI said in its initial application form, the company had stated that one kiln of 100 tonne per day was in operation and two kilns were to be commissioned in April 2004, but in its agenda form, the firm said three kilns of 100 tonne per day were in operation and eight others were under installation.

"They (accused) had shown three kilns in the form but during the investigation, it has been established that they had only two kilns," the prosecutor told Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar.

"The first misrepresentation was regarding land the other was regarding kilns," the agency said.

Raising jurisdictional issue, senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, who appeared for the firm, said, "This court has taken cognisance of the offence only under the IPC and not under Prevention of Corruption Act. All these offences are triable by a magisterial court."

He argued that the accused would be prejudiced if they were tried by special court in the case and the matter should be remanded to a magisterial court. The arguments on framing of charges remained inconclusive and would continue on February 18.

After the defence counsel raised jurisdictional issue, the court said it would deal with the issue in its order. During arguments, the counsel for accused contended that there was no misrepresentation by the firm and CBI has not specified which offences were allegedly committed by which of the accused. He argued that ingredient of cheating was not made out in the case as there was no system or guidelines in place to verify the claims of the applicant firms in their application seeking coal blocks allocation.

Besides Rungtas and JIPL, two private persons - Ramabatar Kedia and Naresh Mahto - were also summoned as accused in the case but they have died. CBI had submitted a verification report regarding their death after which the court had abated the proceedings against them. The court had summoned them as accused for alleged offences under IPC sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using a forged document as genuine) and 477-A (falsification of accounts).

In its charge sheet, CBI alleged that it had found in the probe that JIPL had "grossly misrepresented" a number of aspects before Ministry of Steel (MoS) and Ministry of Coal (MoC) to inflate their claim, thereby inducing MoC officers and the screening committee to allocate coal block to them.

In its charge sheet, CBI had also claimed that no efforts were made by the screening committee to verify the applicant firm's claims, while the MoS also did not develop any methodology to assess the applicant companies. CBI had said no involvement of any public servant was found in the entire process during its probe.