Coal scam case: Delhi High Court grants bail to former Coal Secretary HC Gupta, IAS officer KC Kropha

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted bail to former Secretary of the Union Ministry of Coal HC Gupta as well as bureaucrat KC Kropha in a case related to irregularities in the allocation of a coal block in Chhattisgarh..Gupta and Kropha, along with former Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) Vijay Darda, his son Devender Darda and director of JLD Yavatmal Energy Manoj Kumar Jayaswal, were convicted by a trial court on July 13 this year. Another bureaucrat named KC Samria was also convicted in the case.The Dardas were sentenced to four years in jail, while Gupta and Kropha were sentenced to imprisonment for three years. The Dardas and Jayaswal have already been granted interim bail by the High Court in the case. .Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma heard the matter today and noted that both Gupta and Kropha have been awarded imprisonment of three years and that they have been granted bail in similar cases earlier as well.While granting them bail, the Court issued notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and listed the case for further consideration along with the appeals filed by the other convicts in the case..The trial court had held all the accused guilty of offences under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) read with Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 13(1)(d)(iii) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.This was the thirteenth conviction in the coal scam case. The case relates to allocation of coal blocks which were advertised in 2006. It was alleged that JLD Yavatmal Energy had concealed various facts in its application form in order to obtain wrongful gain in the allocation of the coal block.It was said that the coal block was allocated to JLD as a result of active collaboration between the office bearers of the company and the officials of the Ministry of Coal (MoC) - Gupta, Kropha and Samria.In its order convicting the accused, the trial court said that private parties had committed the offence of cheating and there was active connivance with the officials of the MoC.On the role of the public servants, the court said that they must be liable for their actions and even though the guidelines issued by the MoC to govern the allocation of captive coal blocks may not be termed as 'law' under Article 13 of the Constitution, they were binding upon the officers.