A Special CBI Judge has convicted former Union Minister of State Dilip Ray for his involvement in the 1999 Jharkhand Coal Scam..Special Judge Bharat Parashar today convicted Ray and others for the offence of criminal conspiracy and other offences..In his Judgment, the Special Judge states that the guilt of the accused has been established by the prosecution beyond "shadows of all reasonable doubts" .Accordingly, Dilip Ray has been convicted of conspiracy, cheating, and criminal breach of trust under Sections 120-B, 409, and 420 of the Indian Penal Code. Additionally, he has been found to have violated provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act; converting property for his own use and for taking illegal gratification..Apart from Ray, the court also convicted two former senior officials of the Ministry of Coal Pradip Kumar Banerjee and Nitya Nand Gautam, as well as the Director of Castron Technologies Limited, Mahendra Kumar Aggarwalla..The case pertains to irregularities in the allocation of a Jharkhand coal block in 1999, when Ray was Minister of State for Coal in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government..There was a question raised by the accused as to the legal validity of the chargesheet filed against them by the CBI and the cognizance taken on the basis of this. It was argued that prior sanction was required before proceedings were initiated against them, since Ray, Gautam, and Banerjee were public servants. The Special Judge observed that all of them had demitted office at the time the chargesheet was filed and so they were no longer public servants for the application of the Prevention of Corruption Act, insofar as their prosecution was concerned. .The amendment to the Act (Section 19) that required sanction to be obtained prior to initiating criminal prosecution even against retired public servants was held as not applicable to the accused. The Judge arrived at the conclusion because their prosecution commenced before the Amendments took effect, and that changes in procedural law did not ordinarily operate retrospectively..The sentence is expected to be pronounced on October 14. .All of the accused in the case have been summoned to the Special Court in Delhi for the verdict..Read the Judgment:
A Special CBI Judge has convicted former Union Minister of State Dilip Ray for his involvement in the 1999 Jharkhand Coal Scam..Special Judge Bharat Parashar today convicted Ray and others for the offence of criminal conspiracy and other offences..In his Judgment, the Special Judge states that the guilt of the accused has been established by the prosecution beyond "shadows of all reasonable doubts" .Accordingly, Dilip Ray has been convicted of conspiracy, cheating, and criminal breach of trust under Sections 120-B, 409, and 420 of the Indian Penal Code. Additionally, he has been found to have violated provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act; converting property for his own use and for taking illegal gratification..Apart from Ray, the court also convicted two former senior officials of the Ministry of Coal Pradip Kumar Banerjee and Nitya Nand Gautam, as well as the Director of Castron Technologies Limited, Mahendra Kumar Aggarwalla..The case pertains to irregularities in the allocation of a Jharkhand coal block in 1999, when Ray was Minister of State for Coal in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government..There was a question raised by the accused as to the legal validity of the chargesheet filed against them by the CBI and the cognizance taken on the basis of this. It was argued that prior sanction was required before proceedings were initiated against them, since Ray, Gautam, and Banerjee were public servants. The Special Judge observed that all of them had demitted office at the time the chargesheet was filed and so they were no longer public servants for the application of the Prevention of Corruption Act, insofar as their prosecution was concerned. .The amendment to the Act (Section 19) that required sanction to be obtained prior to initiating criminal prosecution even against retired public servants was held as not applicable to the accused. The Judge arrived at the conclusion because their prosecution commenced before the Amendments took effect, and that changes in procedural law did not ordinarily operate retrospectively..The sentence is expected to be pronounced on October 14. .All of the accused in the case have been summoned to the Special Court in Delhi for the verdict..Read the Judgment:
