New Delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday fixed May 2 for considering the charge sheet filed by CBI in coal blocks allocation scam case against Navabharat Power Pvt Ltd and its two directors.
Special CBI Judge Madhu Jain fixed the matter for May 2 as CBI has not yet filed complete set of documents, which were part of the charge sheet filed on March 10.
According to the agency sources, CBI today filed some of the documents which were part of the charge sheet in which the firm and its two directors were accused of conspiring and cheating by purportedly misrepresenting facts to "embellish" its applications to get allotments between 2006 and 2009.
This was the first charge sheet filed by CBI out of the 16 FIRs lodged by it till date in the multi-crore scam against various firms and top corporates, also including industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and Congress MP Naveen Jindal.
According to the agency sources, Navabharat Power Pvt Ltd, its two directors -- P Trivikrama Prasad and Y Harish Chandra Prasad -- were named as accused in the charge sheet filed before the court.
They have been chargesheeted under sections 420 (cheating) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC, sources said.
Surprisingly, the charge sheet makes no mention of provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act, which was slapped against them in the FIR lodged on September 3, 2012.
The sources had, however, added that CBI has said in its 32-page final report that the probe against unknown public servants in the case is underway and they may file a supplementary charge sheet soon.
They had said that only the operative portion of the charge sheet was filed before the court on March 10.
CBI in its FIR filed on September 3, 2012, had named Navabharat Power Pvt Ltd, its two directors along with some unknown public servants of the Ministry of Coal and others in the case.
The FIR was lodged after a preliminary enquiry was initiated by CBI on a reference by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).
In the FIR, CBI had also accused unknown officials of the Coal Ministry of entering into conspiracy and "wilfully" not scrutinising documents to allow "undue advantage" for the company in getting the blocks.
The agency, in its FIR against Navabharat Power Pvt Ltd, had said that in order to "embellish its claim for allocation of coal block", the firm "fraudulently" claimed that it was having the required net worth to get the coal mines.
CBI had said that after allocation of coal blocks, the promoters and shareholders of Navabharat Power Pvt Ltd sold off their entire shareholdings in July 2010 to Essar Power Ltd and its subsidiary company at "huge profit of over Rs 200 crores."
However, sources had said Essar Power Ltd has not been named as an accused in the charge sheet.
"Enquiry also revealed that officials of the Ministry of Coal in pursuance of criminal conspiracy, wilfully and purposefully, did not scrutinise the aforesaid documents regarding false claims/concealment of facts by Navabharat Power Pvt Ltd and thus facilitated the company in getting undue advantage in allocation of Rampia and Dip Side of Rampia Coal Blocks," CBI had said in its FIR.
CBI, in its FIR, had said the Ministry of Coal had invited applications for allocation of 38 coal blocks, including 15 for the power sector and 23 for non-power sector, through an advertisement in November 2006.
It had said 38 coal blocks included Rampia and 'Dip Side' of Rampia coal blocks in Odhisa, having geological reserve of 645.235 MMT, which were to be allocated to the power sector.
CBI had alleged that the Screening Committee recommended allocation of these coal blocks jointly to six companies -- Sterlite Energy Ltd, GMR Energy Ltd, Lanco Group Ltd, Mittal Steel India Ltd, Reliance Energy Ltd and Navabharat Power Pvt Ltd for their proposed power plants.
It had said, "Ministry of Power had recommended allocation of Rampia block to Sterlite Energy Ltd and Vedanta Alumina Ltd and Dip Side of Rampia block to Monnet Ispat and Energy Ltd, Jindal Photo Ltd and Mittal Steel India Ltd."
"However, Navabharat Power Pvt Ltd had recommendations of Ministry of Power for allocation of Mandakini coal block in the state of Odisha. The Odisha government had also recommended Navabharat Power Ltd for allocation of a coal block," it had alleged.
"Therefore, a regular case is registered under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating) of the IPC and 13(2) read with 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 against Navabharat Power Pvt Ltd, its directors viz P Trivikrama Prasad ... Y Harish Chandra Prasad... along with unknown public servants under Ministry of Coal and unknown others," the CBI had said.
