Press Trust Of India
New Delhi, Jan 28: The CBI Wednesday told a special court that it has furnished necessary records before ‘competent authority’ for considering grant of sanction to prosecute the public servants allegedly involved in a coal scam case relating to allocation of blocks to Navbharat Power Pvt Ltd (NPPL).
The agency told Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar that they were awaiting response from the competent authority on the issue. Based on this, the court fixed the matter for further hearing March 12.
The agency was earlier directed by the court to further investigate the matter in which it had filed a charge sheet against NPPL, its managing director and vice-chairman Harish Chandra Prasad and chairman P Trivikrama Prasad. CBI had told the court that the probe in the case was going on in pursuance of the order passed by the court.
The court, in its order passed November 12, 2014, had said the acts of former coal secretary HC Gupta and two other public servants overlooking alleged misrepresentation by NPPL for acquiring a coal block in Rampia in Orissa prima facie amounted to criminal misconduct. The court had differed from CBI’s conclusion that no mala fide intention was found on the part of public servants. The court also said it was prima facie clear that the decision to allocate coal block to NPPL was taken by officers of coal ministry and its screening committee without keeping public interest in mind.
The court had also asked CBI to place before sanctioning authority the records of the case for considering the issue of according sanction to prosecute public servants involved in the offence, under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The court has kept pending the final reports filed by the agency in which it had earlier charge-sheeted NPPL and two of its executives while a supplementary final report was filed later on, saying no offence was found to have been committed by the public servants.
