Naveen Jindal
A special court on Monday ordered framing of charges against industrialist Naveen Jindal and four others in a case pertaining to coal block allocation scam.
Special judge Bharat Parashar ordered framing of charges under sections 420 (cheating) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code against Jindal and the others.
Besides Jindal, the charges have been framed against Jindal Steel and Power Limited's former director Sushil Maroo, former deputy managing director Anand Goyal, chief executive officer Vikrant Gujral and the company's authorised signatory D N Abrol.
The court was hearing a matter pertaining to the allocation of the Urtan North coal block in Madhya Pradesh.
It has now put up the matter for July 25 for formally framing the charges against the accused.
Jindal is named as accused, along with former Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao and ex-Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, in another case pertaining to alleged irregularities in allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand.
According to the CBI charge sheet in this case, the accused had misrepresented facts in its January 2007 application before the Screening Committee, responsible for recommending coal block allocation, for obtaining the Madhya Pradesh coal block and hence cheated the Coal Ministry to get wrongful gains.
The ministry had issued the allocation letter to the firm in October 2009.
The probe agency has named 64 persons as prosecution witnesses to prove its case besides annexing 60 documents in its charge sheet.
The charge sheet has said that in the feedback form, the firm misrepresented or made false claims on two counts -- that it had already acquired 964 acres of land for its Jharkhand-based Patratu project and that it had placed orders for equipment for its Orissa-based Angul project for Rs 4,340 crore.
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