Court convicts private company, its directors in coal scam case

A special court on Thursday convicted Adhunik Corporation Ltd and its two directors of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy in a case related to the alleged irregularities in the allocation of Patrapara coal block in Odisha to the firm.

Special Judge Arun Bhardwaj held the company and its directors -- Nirmal Kumar Agarwal and Mahesh Kumar Agarwal -- guilty, holding that they entered into a criminal conspiracy (under Section 120-B of IPC) to cheat Ministry of Coal for allocation of coal block in their favour.

"The circumstantial evidence in this case unerringly points to the conspiracy amongst the accused and there is no other inference except the inference of criminal conspiracy to secure allocation of a coal block by cheating Ministry of Steel, Screening Committee and Ministry of Coal, Government of India," the judge said.

The judge also convicted the accused of cheating (Section 420 of IPC) Ministry of Steel, Screening Committee and Ministry of Coal for allocation of coal block.

The court further held that the accused knowingly used forged documents as genuine (Section 471 of IPC).

After pronouncing the judgment, the court directed the authorities to take the convicts into custody.

The court will hear the arguments on the quantum of sentence on Friday, where the accused may get a maximum seven-year jail term.

According to CBI's counsel V K Sharma, the 30th Screening Committee had recommended Adhunik Corporation Ltd for part allocation of Patrapara coal block. "During the course of investigation, it was found that Adhunik Corporation Ltd had misrepresented on various aspects both to the ministry of steel and thereby to the ministry of coal with a view to cheat them so as to procure allocation of Patrapara coal block,'' CBI had said in its chargesheet.

While taking cognisance of the chargesheet, the court had discharged another director of the firm, Ghanshyam Das Agarwal, who was also chargesheeted by CBI in the case, saying there was no sufficient incriminating evidence on record which could lead to his summoning as an accused in the matter.

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