Coal scam: Delhi court awards 3 yrs imprisonment to three pvt firm employees

New Delhi [India], September 7 : A Special court on Wednesday sentenced three employees of a private firm to three years imprisonment finding them guilty of criminal conspiracy and cheating the exchequer by misrepresenting facts to acquire a coal block in West Bengal.
The three accused were engaged by a firm called Himachal EMTA Power Ltd (HEPL) private limited.
Special Judge Sanjay Bansal on Wednesday also imposed a fine of Rs two lakh each on the three convicts. The court stated that prima facie there was evidence that suggested that the accused committed the offence under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of IPC.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 20 lakh on Himachal EMTA Power Ltd in the case.
However, the court suspended the punishment for a period of 45 days to enable the convicts to appeal against their conviction before the Delhi High Court. According to the CBI, this is the 12th conviction in coal scam cases secured by the Prosecution Team appointed by the Supreme Court of India order dated 01.09.2014.
Last week the court convicted all the accused and said that "It is held that the prosecution has proved the charges. All the accused i.e. the company M/s Himachal EMTA Power Ltd, its two directors Ujjal Kumar Upadhyay and Bikash Mukherjee and its CGM (Power) N.C. Chakraborty are hereby held guilty and convicted for the offence u/s 120-B IPC and 120-B r/w 420 IPC. All the accused are also held guilty and convicted for the substantive offence u/s 420 IPC".
According to the prosecution, HEPL had misrepresented the status of the land in question and the investment made by it in the project and had secured the allocation of the coal block based on such misrepresentations.
In its chargesheet, the CBI had alleged that HEPL had grossly misrepresented its status of preparedness, not only in its application form, but also in the feedback form submitted on June 22, 2007, and in the information supplied by Chakraborty to the West Bengal government. It was also alleged that Upadhaya and Mukherjee had deliberately conspired with HEPL and
submitted false information to the Ministry of Coal (MoC) to secure the allocation of the Gourangdih ABC coal block in West Bengal in its favour.
The FIR was registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on August 7, 2014 alleging offences under Section 120-B read with Section 420 IPC against HEPL, its promoters/directors, members of the 35th Screening Committee and other unknown persons. It was alleged that the said persons had cheated the Government of India by securing the allocation of Gaurangdih ABC Coal Block in favour of HEPL.
On November 6, 2006, the Ministry of Coal issued an advertisement inviting applications from companies engaged in the generation of power, production of iron and steel and production of cement for allocation of coal blocks for captive coal mines.
In the aforesaid context, Himachal Pradesh Infrastructure Development Board invited "expression of interest" on behalf of the Government of Himachal Pradesh from experienced and well-established organizations for setting up a 2x250 MW capacity pithead Coal Base Thermal Power Plant in a joint venture with the Government of Himachal Pradesh.
M/s Eastern Minerals and Trading Agency (hereafter "EMTA") submitted its expression of interest and, thereafter, Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (hereafter "HPPCL") entered into an MoU dated 04.01.2007 for setting up of a pithead thermal power plant in a joint venture. Pursuant to the aforesaid MoU, HEPL was formed on 09.01.2007 as a joint venture company between EMTA and HPPCL (a Govt. of Himachal Pradesh Enterprise). It is stated that, thereafter, HEPL submitted its application dated 10.01.2007 for allocation of Gaurandih ABC Coal Block located in West Bengal for the proposed 500 MW captive power plant in Rani Ganj, West Bengal.