Delhi court exonerates ex-coal secretary HC Gupta, KS Kropha and 3 others in coal scam case

A Delhi court recently exonerated the former coal secretary HC Gupta and ex-civil servant KS Kropha, and three others in a coal scam case [CBI v RKM Powergen Pvt Ltd & Ors]. 

Special Judge (PC Act) Dheeraj Mor of the Rouse Avenue Courts ruled that essential elements for criminal conspiracy, cheating, or forgery were not made out against Gupta, Kropha, as well as Dr Andal Arumugam and TM Singaravel, the officials of RKM Powergen Private Limited, the company which was allocated the Fatehpur East Coal Block in Chhattisgarh.

“Considering the above detailed discussion, all the five accused persons namely (i) M/s R.K.M. Powergen Pvt. Ltd.; (ii) Smt. Dr. Andal Arumugam; (iii) Sh. T.M. Singaravel; (iv) Sh. Harish Chandra Gupta; and (v) Sh. Kuljeet Singh Kropha (accused nos.1 to 5 respectively) are entitled to be discharged for the respective offences alleged against them in the charge- sheet. Accordingly, they all are ordered to be discharged,” the Court ordered while discharging the accused.

Thus, the matter did not go to trial but was closed at the stage of framing of charge.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) started prosecution against RKM Powergen Private Limited, its directors and senior Ministry of Coal officials (Gupta and Kropha), charging them under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act for alleged misrepresentations, use of forged documents and irregularities in the coal block allocation process.

It was alleged that RKM Powergen applied for the coal block in 2006, claiming a significantly inflated net worth. The company allegedly submitted forged consent letters for land acquisition and other false documents, and officials in the Ministry of Coal overlooked these issues, thus facilitating the allocation.

The CBI initially filed a closure report in 2017, concluding that RKM Powergen, as a special purpose vehicle with legitimate principal promoters was entitled to claim their consolidated net worth and thus was eligible for the coal block allocation.

However, the then Special Judge found this investigation inadequate and directed further scrutiny.  

Supplementary investigation found discrepancies in RKM Powergen’s applications.  

After considering the case, the Court observed that there are no allegations of meeting of minds between accused public servants and the private accused persons for commission of the alleged offence. 

“Further, there are no allegations of any quid pro quo or acquiring any undue advantage by the accused public servants for the recommendation made by the Screening Committee for allocation of Fatehpur East Coal Block in favour of accused no.1 company. There is no evidence that the accused public servants were aware of any alleged misrepresentation made by accused no.1 company to the Screening Committee/Ministry of Coal at the relevant time or it used any forged document as genuine,” the Court added. 

Therefore, it discharged all the accused persons in the case. 

Senior Advocate Abhimanyu Bhandari and advocate Aarav Pandit appeared for the directors of RKM Powergen.

Advocates Rahul Tyagi and Mathew M Philip represented HC Gupta and KS Kropha.

Deputy Legal Advisor NP Srivastava represented the CBI.

[Read Judgment]