Coal Scam: Delhi special court convicts former Steel Ministry official for corruption

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Ministry of Steel's Joint Plant Committee (JPC), in a case related to irregularities in the allocation of a coal block. This is the 14th conviction in corruption related to coal-related matters. The trial of the case was conducted by Sanjay Kumar, Deputy Legal Advisor of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

A Special Judge Arun Bhardwaj on Friday convicted Gautam Kumar Basak under section — 13(2) read with section — 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 and fixed August 19 for the arguments on the point of the sentence. According to the CBI, the Union Ministry of Coal (MOC) in the month of November 2006 had invited applications from the companies engaged in the generation of power, steel and cement for allocation of coal blocks for captive power plants/independent power plants. In response to the advertisement issued by MOC, a number of companies applied for coal blocks.

Prakash Industries Ltd. had applied for Vijay Central Coal Block situated in the state of Chhattisgarh. Earlier Chotia Coal Block was allocated to Prakash Industries Ltd, according to the CBI.

CBI further added that in the application dated January 1, 2007 submitted to MoC, Prakash Industries Ltd. had claimed its sponge iron production capacity as 8 MTPA. Believing the claim made by Prakash Industries Ltd., the Screening Committee of the Ministry of Coal recommended joint allocation of Vijay Central Coal Block in favour of Prakash Industries Ltd.

and SKS Ispat Ltd. & Ors. These recommendations were sent to the Prime Minister's Office for final approval.