A Special CBI Court on Thursday awarded jail sentences to two directors of Pawanjay Steel and Power Limited and one other person In Lohardanga Jharkhand Coal block case. Special CBI court at Delhi's Rouse Avenue has convicted all for accused for criminal conspiracy and cheating holding them guilty of offences under sections 120-B and 420 of IPC.  

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PSPL directors Gyanchand Prasad Agarwal, 70, and Umesh Chand Agarwal, 58, who were held guilty for the substantive offence of cheating i.e. under section 420 IPC and criminal conspiracy (120-B of IPC) for a period of three years each. SK Kanungo, Chief Manager (Marketing) of Hari Machines Ltd (HML), was jailed for a period of two years for the offence punishable under 120-B of the IPC.

The court of Special judge Bharat Parashar also imposed a fine of Rs 75 lakh on the company, Rs 40 lakh each on Gyanchand and Umesh Chand and Rs one lakh on Kanungo.

"...overall facts and circumstances of the case unerringly point out to one and only one hypothesis and which is consistent with the guilt of the accused persons only and also that the circumstances are not explainable on any other hypothesis, much less consistent with the innocence of the accused persons. The prosecution in my considered opinion has clearly been successful in proving its case against all the four accused persons," the court has concluded in its judgment on Wednesday. 

CBI investigation had concluded that the company PSPL and its two directors Gyanchand Prasad Agarwal and Umesh Chand Agarwal along with SK Kanungo hatched a criminal conspiracy with a view to deceive Ministry of Coal so as to induce it to allocate a captive coal block in favour of PSPL. 

During the processing of their application, they also furnished wrong information supported with false documents to Ministry of Steel so as to deceive them and thereby inducing them to make a recommendation in favour of PSPL to Ministry of Coal for allotment of a coal block.

It was also found during the course of the investigation that company PSPL had also submitted wrong information about the land actually acquired by them at the proposed project site in Jharkhand. It was found that till the date of submission of its application with Govt. of Jharkhand on July 27, 2004, PSPL had not acquired any land and in fact the company started acquiring/purchasing land w.e.f. December 3, 2004 onwards only. 

It was also found that the accused persons had furnished false information to Ministry of Steel and to Govt. of Jharkhand also so as to deceive them and thereby inducing them to make a recommendation in favour of PSPL to Ministry of Coal for allotment of a captive coal block.