Coal scam: Naveen Jindal, Rao, Koda and seven others get bail

New Delhi: Congress leader and industrialist Naveen Jindal, former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, ex -Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao and seven others were today granted bail by a special court which asked them not to tamper with evidence or influence witnesses.

The court granted them the relief after they appeared before it and sought bail on the ground that they have joined the investigation and there was no apprehension that they would flee from justice.

Apart from Jindal, Rao and Koda, the court granted bail to former coal Secretary Harish Chandra Gupta and six others on furnishing of a personal bond of Rs one lakh each and a surety of like amount.

Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar directed the accused not to leave the country without the court's prior permission and fixed the matter for June 1 for scrutiny of documents.

While granting bail, the court said undoubtedly the allegations against the accused persons were serious in nature and moreso as they occupied high position in the society.

"However, at the same time it is also true that during the course of investigation, none of the accused persons were arrested by CBI and there has been no allegation that they did not join the investigation as and when called for," it said.

"I, thus, without entering into any further details on merits or demerits of the case at this stage of the matter, deem it appropriate that the interest of justice will be suitably met if all the above 10 accused persons are released on bail...," the judge said.

During the hearing, CBI vehemently opposed the bail pleas of Jindal and others saying the accused are high profile industrialists, politicians and public servants.

Senior Public Prosecutor V K Sharma said most of the prosecution witnesses were employees of various industries of the accused persons and there were chances of tampering with evidence. Also considering the seriousness of the allegations, the accused persons should not be released on bail, he said.

The accused were summoned by the court in the case pertaining to alleged irregularities in allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand to two Jindal group firms, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) and Gagan Sponge Iron Pvt Ltd (GSIPL).

Besides Jindal, Rao, Koda and Gupta, the other accused who were granted bail are Suresh Singhal, Director of New Delhi Exim Pvt Ltd, Rajeev Jain, Director of Jindal Realty Pvt Ltd, Girish Kumar Suneja and Radha Krishna Saraf, both Directors of Gagan Sponge Iron Pvt Ltd (GSIPL), K Ramakrishna Prasad, Managing Director of Sowbhagya Media Ltd and chartered accountant Gyan Swaroop Garg.

Besides these ten accused, the authorised representatives of five accused firms -- JSPL, Jindal Realty Pvt Ltd, Gagan Infraenergy Ltd (formerly known as GSIPL), Sowbhagya Media Ltd and New Delhi Exim Pvt Ltd -- also appeared before the court.

After the court's hearing, JSPL, in a statement, said that "the court was informed there was no loss or gain to anyone as no exploration could be undertaken in the said coal block because of intense naxal activities in that area."

"The company has not violated any rules and regulations and allocation was made to the company purely on merit. The company has full faith in judiciary and?is confident to come out clean and stand vindicated, upon outcome of the legal process,?as there is no substantial case against any accused," the statement said.

During the hearing, Jindal sought bail saying that after registration of FIR, he had cooperated with the CBI in the probe and also appeared in the court on the first date of hearing after being summoned as accused.

Senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, who appeared for Jindal, said all materials in the case were basically documentary in nature and records of the case are voluminous and there is no apprehension that he would not be available during trial.

"He is a permanent resident of Delhi and was not arrested during the investigation by the CBI. The court can impose whatever condition it deems fit while granting bail," he said during the hearing in the jampacked court room.

Counsel for Rao and Prasad said the decision regarding final allocation of the coal block was taken by the then Coal Minister, who was the then the Prime Minister, and Rao had nothing to do with it.

"The decision regarding final allocation was taken by the Minister of Coal, who was the then Prime Minister. I (Rao) had nothing to do with it," the counsel said, adding that some notes in the case were sent by the then Power Minister.

"Being the Minister of State for Coal, he only forwarded the notes. The decision was taken by the Prime Minister Office (PMO) not by Rao," he said, adding that there was no evidence against Rao in the charge sheet.

Similarly, Gupta sought bail saying he was the chairman of Screening Committee and he had forwarded the recommendations to the then coal minister.

"Being the Chairman of the screening committee, I (Rao) was required to forward the recommendations to the Coal Minister, who was the then Prime Minister. Screening committee was only a recommending body," Gupta's advocate said.

Koda's counsel adopted the arguments of other advocates and added that there was no evidence against his client that he favoured anyone in the allocation of coal blocks.

Senior advocate Mohit Mathur, appearing for Suneja and Saraf adopted the arguments of other counsel and said Saraf was 81-year-old with fragile medical condition and his eye sight was diminishing and was not in a position to be jailed.

Counsel of accused Singhal, Garg and Jain also sought bail for their clients saying they were not arrested during the investigation and have appeared before the court on the first date and would be available during the trial.

During the hearing, the CBI counsel alleged that Jindal had paid bribe to Rao to secure the coal block. He also supplied e-copy of the charge sheet to all the accused saying that the documents in the case are voluminous in nature.

The court said that the defence counsel may inform the investigating officer, if there was any issue with regard to the CD supplied to them.

The hearing was conducted in a jampacked court room in the presence of a battery of lawyers, scribes and onlookers.

The searing heat was apparent on Jindal, who was forced to take off his coat during the proceedings due to the humidity inside the courtroom.

As soon as the hearing began, even the judge was unable to see the accused persons after which he asked the accused to come forward near the dias to mark their presence.

During the hearing, an NGO's advocate sought to be impleaded as an intervenor in the case saying he wanted to place some "correct facts" before the court.

The court, however, refused to give him a hearing at this stage and said he would be heard when the need arose.

As the NGO's counsel told the court that he was one of the whistleblowers against corruption in the society, the court said it would hear him at an appropriate stage.

"If you (advocate) will press for your application now, I will pass order right now. The order would be 'heard, perused and dismissed'," the judge said.

In its charge sheet in the case, CBI has alleged that Jindal had promised Congress support to the then "unstable" Koda government in Jharkhand in return for a recommendation for allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block to his group firms.

Koda, then an independent MLA, was chief minister of Jharkhand from September 14, 2006 to August 23, 2008 with the support of Congress, RJD and others.

While summoning the accused, the court had observed that Jindal had prima facie "manipulated" the entire government machinery to procure undue coal block allotment in Jharkhand.

While summoning the accused, the judge had observed that the charge sheet filed by CBI prima facie showed that Jindal had played a "pivotal role" in the conspiracy to procure allotment of the coal block in favour of his two group firms, JSPL and GSIPL.

The court had said that prima facie offences under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 420 (cheating) of the IPC read with section 13(1)(c) and 13(1)(d) (criminal misconduct by a public servant) of the Prevention of Corruption Act were made out against all the 15 accused.

The court had said that substantive offence of cheating was prima facie made out against Jindal, Saraf, Suneja, JSPL and Gagan Infraenergy Ltd.

It had said substantive offences under section 409 of IPC and section 13(1)(c)/13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) were also prima facie made out against Rao and Gupta while substantive offence under section 13(1)(d) of PCA was prima facie made out against Koda.

Section 409 of IPC entails life imprisonment as maximum punishment.

The court had said that according to CBI's charge sheet, Koda had conspired with Jindal and abused his official position to extend "undue benefits" to JSPL and GSIPL.

It was found during the probe that GSIPL had allegedly misrepresented facts about its net worth in the feedback form submitted before the screening committee, the court had said.

It had also observed that from the circumstances, it prima facie appeared that GSIPL had acted as a "front company" for JSPL to procure allotment of entire Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block.