Coal scam: Court grants bail to ex-Coal Secy, four others

New Delhi: A special court on Wednesday granted bail to former Coal Secretary H C Gupta and four others, including two senior public servants, for their alleged roles in a coal block allocation scam case.

Besides Gupta, the court granted bail to two senior public servants, K S Kropha and K C Samria, Brahmani Thermal Power Pvt Ltd (BTPPL) chairman, P Trivikrama Prasad and its vice chairman Y Harish Chandra Prasad.

Special CBI judge Bharat Parashar granted them bail after they appeared as accused before it in a case pertaining to alleged irregularities in allocation of Rampia and dip side of Rampia coal block in Odisha to M/s Navbharat Power Pvt Ltd (NPPL), which is now known as BTPPL, in January 2008.

The court granted them bail on furnishing a personal bond of Rs one lakh each with one surety of like amount. The counsel appearing for the accused sought bail on the ground that they were not arrested during the probe by the CBI and have cooperated in the investigation and there was no likelihood that they will flee from justice.

The CBI opposed their bail plea contending that being influential persons they may tamper with the evidence or delay the trial.

"Keeping in view the overall facts and circumstances of the case, coupled with the submissions made, I am of the considered opinion that interest of justice will be met if the accused persons are granted bail on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh each with one surety of the like amount," the judge said.

These five individual accused, along with BTPPL, were summoned by the court for the alleged offences under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servants) and 420 (cheating) of IPC and under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Kropha was the then Joint Secretary of Ministry of Coal (MoC) while Samria was the then Director (Coal Allocation-I section) in the ministry.