A special court on Monday sentenced former Union Minister Dilip Ray and three other individual convicts to three years of jail term for irregularities in the allocation of the Brahmadiha coal block in Jharkhand in 1999.
The four convicts were fined ₹10 lakh each, while Castron Technologies Limited and Castron Mining Limited were asked to pay a fine of ₹60 lakh and ₹10 lakh respectively.
Ray, who was Minister of State for Coal in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, was later granted bail on furnishing a bond of ₹1 lakh.
Earlier this month, the court convicted him, along with then Additional Secretary Pradip Kumar Banerjee and then Adviser (Project) Nityanand Gautam, in the Coal Ministry.
Castron Technologies Limited, its director, Mahendra Kumar Agarwalla, and Castron Mining Limited were also convicted. The case pursued by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) alleged corruption in the allocation of 105.15 hectare of the abandoned coal mining area in Giridih in favour of Castron Technologies.
The CBI registered the case on January 7, 2014. It was alleged that Dhanbad-based Castron Technologies Limited, Castron Mining Limited of Kolkata and others conspired with public servants for allocation.
According to the agency, the beneficiary company was given an undue favour by violating the guidelines framed for the allotment of Brahmadiha coal block.
“Investigation also revealed that the company was to establish the end use plant for consuming the coal, but it did not establish the same. It was also alleged that the Brahmadiha coal block was not included in the list of captive coal mining at any point of time,” said the CBI. After investigation, the agency filed a chargesheet against the six accused. During the court proceedings, it examined around 51 prosecution witnesses through their affidavits.
