Coal Scam: Special court grants bail to ex-coal secretary H.C Gupta, others

New Delhi [India], Feb. 7 (ANI): A special court on Tuesday granted bail to former coal secretary H.C. Gupta and others in connection with alleged irregularities in allocation of a Chhattisgarh based coal block to SKS Ispat and Power Ltd (SIPL). Besides the former coal secretary, the special CBI court also granted bail to others accused including senior public servant K. S Kropha, the firm, and its two directors Anil Gupta and Deepak Gupta, and three others -- Amit Singh, Rakesh Singh and Jagan Nath Panda. The court has asked all of them to sign one lakh personal bail bond and deposit one lakh security amount. The CBI has claimed in the final report that the accused hatched a criminal conspiracy to cheat the Screening Committee, in order to bag the mining contract for the Fatehpur Coal Block in Chattisgarh. The probe agency charged the accused with forgery, cheating, criminal conspiracy and criminal misconduct. According to the CBI, SIPL had got Fatehpur coal block in Chhattisgarh in 2008. It said that the company misrepresented various aspects of preparedness and was ineligible on the issue of net worth. The CBI had registered FIR in the matter in 2014. (ANI)