Coal scam: Two fresh cases

The CBI on Saturday registered two fresh cases against two private companies in its ongoing investigation into the coal block allocation scam and carried out searches at seven locations across the country.

The federal agency has charged Grace Industries and Vikash Metals and Powers Limited for alleged misrepresentation of their net worth and joint venture to illegally get coal blocks.

“The cases have been registered to look into the allegations related to allocation of coal blocks on the basis of misrepresentations and false claims in the applications and in the presentations made by companies. Our investigations have revealed that promoters of one company are alleged to have sold their stakes after allocation of coal block,” CBI spokesperson Dharini Mishra said in an official statement.

Subsequently after registering the cases, CBI officials carried out raids at seven locations including Nagpur in Madhya Pradesh, and Kolkata, Purulia and Asansol in West Bengal.

The CBI sources said the owner of Grace Industries — Mukesh Gupta’s house and office premises were among those being raided on Saturday. Gupta had allegedly sold mine blocks allocated to him in Lohara near Tadoba to Sunvijay Rolling Mills, but the block was de-allocated following objection from the Union forest and environment ministry.

In its first FIR, the CBI booked Kolkata based M/s Vikash Metal & Power Ltd and its directors Vimal Patni, Vikash Patni, Anand Patni, Virender Kumar Jain, Kailash Chander Jain & Vijay Kumar Jain and Anand Mallick who is authorised signatory for the company, among others. In the second case, the Nagpur-based M/s Grace Industries Ltd and its directors, namely Mukesh Gupta and Seema Gupta were booked, along with unknown public servants and others.

Recently, the Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) recommended seizure of M/s Grace industry’s bank guarantee for captive block at Malegaon. The owners of these companies have been charged with cheating, criminal conspiracy and under sections of Prevention of Corruption Act, CBI sources said.

Earlier, the CBI had registered five cases this month in this connection. The cases were registered against AMR Iron and Steel Private Limited, JLD Yavatmal Energy Limited, Navbharat Power Private Limited, Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Limited and JAS Infrastructure Capital Private Limited.