Chhattisgarh coal block scam: Delhi court awards 4 year jail term to former MP

A Delhi court on Wednesday awarded four-year jail term to former Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda, his son Devender Darda and JLD Yavatmal Energy Pvt Ltd's Director Manoj Kumar Jayaswal for their involvement in irregularities in the allocation of a coal block in Chhattisgarh.

The court pronounced the quantum of punishment on Wednesday after having it reserved on July 19.

While the former coal secretary H.C. Gupta and two other officials, K.S. Kropha and K.C. Samaria, were handed a three-year jail sentence, the court imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh on M/s JLD Yavatmal.

On July 13, Special Judge Sanjay Bansal delivered the verdict convicting them.

The accused have been held guilty under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, and sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The court had earlier acknowledged the arguments presented by senior public prosecutor A.P. Singh, stating that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has successfully proven its case beyond any reasonable doubt.

During the hearing on quantum of punishment, the probe agency had sought maximum punishment, claiming that Darda and his son had met then CBI Director Ranjit Sinha at his residence to scuttle the investigation. It was further claimed that a witness in the case stated that he was threatened by Jayaswal, who tried to influence him to not depose against him.

On November 20, 2014, the court had rejected the closure report submitted by the CBI in this case. The court had directed the probe agency to initiate a fresh investigation, citing that the former MP Darda had "misrepresented" facts in letters addressed to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who also held the Coal portfolio.

According to the court, Vijay Darda, who is the Chairperson of the Lokmat Group, resorted to such misrepresentations in order to obtain the Fatehpur (East) coal block in Chhattisgarh for JLD Yavatmal Energy.

The court had ruled that the act of cheating was carried out by private entities as part of a conspiracy involving both private parties and public servants.

JLD Yavatmal Energy was granted the Fatehpur (East) coal block by the 35th Screening Committee. Initially, the CBI alleged in its FIR that JLD Yavatmal had unlawfully concealed the previous allocation of four coal blocks to its group companies between 1999 and 2005. However, the agency later filed a closure report, stating that no undue benefit had been granted to JLD Yavatmal by the Coal Ministry during the coal block allocation.