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New Delhi, March 24
The CBI on Friday filed a supplementary chargesheet naming five more persons as accused in a coal scam case against Congress leader and industrialist Naveen Jindal and others.
Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar took cognizance of the final report and summoned all the new accused named in it for April 10.
In its final report, the agency has named as accused Jindal Steel’s adviser Anand Goel, Gurgaon-based Green Infra’s Vice-President Siddharth Madra, Nihar Stocks Limited Director BSN Suryanarayan, Mumbai-based KE International’s Chief Financial Officer Rajeev Aggarwal, and Mumbai’s Essar Power Limited Executive Vice-Chairman Sushil Kumar Maroo.
The court had earlier directed the agency to expeditiously file its further probe report as sufficient time has already been granted to it and listed the matter for filing of the report on March 24.
The case also involved ex-Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao and ex-Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda as accused.
The CBI has alleged that Koda had favoured Jindal group firms—Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) and Gagan Sponge Iron Pvt Ltd (GSIPL) — in allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand.
Opposing CBI’s contention, all the accused had said there was no evidence to show that there was any conspiracy during the coal block allocation process. They had also denied the allegations levelled against them by the CBI in its chargesheet.
The fresh five names were revealed by a chartered accountant, Suresh Singhal, who was earlier chargesheeted by the CBI as accused in the case.
However, the court later allowed the CBI’s plea that it needed to probe the case further in the light of certain disclosures made by Singhal, who had sought the court’s nod to turn approver.
It had then allowed Singhal’s plea for pardon and ordered deletion of his name from the list of accused.
Besides Jindal, Rao, Koda and Singhal, the probe agency had also chargesheeted former Coal Secretary HC Gupta and others in the case.
Besides them, the other accused are—Rajeev Jain, Director of Jindal Realty Pvt Ltd; Girish Kumar Suneja and Radha Krishna Saraf, GSIPL Directors; K Ramakrishna Prasad, MD of Sowbhagya Media Ltd; and chartered accountant Gyan Swaroop Garg. All the accused are currently out on bail.
Besides the nine accused, five firms—JSPL, Jindal Realty Pvt Ltd, Gagan Infraenergy Ltd (formerly known as GSIPL), Sowbhagya Media Ltd and New Delhi Exim Pvt Ltd—are also accused in the case.
Earlier, the court had directed the CBI to verify the death of Radha Krishna Saraf, an accused and former Director of Gagan Sponge Iron Private Ltd (GSIPL), after it was informed that he had recently died of heart attack here.
