Coal Allocation Scam: Special court frames charges against Ex-MP Vijay Darda, his son and industrialist Manoj Jayaswal
court earlier this week framed charges against former Rajya Sabha member Vijay Darda, his son Devendra Darda, industrialist Manoj Jayaswal and others under relevant sections of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with a coal allocation scandal.
The court also framed charges against AMR Iron and Steel, Asera Banka Power and Abhishek Jayaswal under Section 3 and 4 of PMLA.
The court, however, discharged 15 of the total 21 co-accused in the case, finding no evidence to charge them. Of the 15 discharged, seven are Kolkata-based alleged shell companies controlled by a chartered accountant through six of his employees who were made directors in the alleged shell companies.
The chartered accountant Santosh Jain, his employees and companies were represented by advocate Vijay Agarwal. The 15 were accused of layering alleged bribe amount of Rs 24.6 crore received from industrialist Manoj Jayaswal and his son Abhishek Jayaswal.
ED had alleged that the bribe was layered through a web of interconnected transactions before paying it to Asera Banka Power, a company controlled by former Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda and his son for their help in facilitating the allocation of Bander coal block to the company AMR Iron & Steel.
It was alleged that the bribe amount was paid by masking it through a web of inter-related share-purchase transactions and by buying shares of the ultimate beneficiary Asera Banka at highly inflated figures.
ED had launched a money laundering probe on the basis of an FIR registered by
