New Delhi: A special court Wednesday cancelled a non-bailable warrant issued against Director of Jharkhand Ispat Pvt Ltd R C Rungta, who is an accused in a coal block allocation case, after he appeared before it.
The court, however, warned Rungta to be careful in future while allowing the submissions of his counsel seeking to cancel the NBW issued against his client.
"Advocate should be present in the court if he is seeking exemption for accused. I am telling this to you (R C Rungta) for the first and last time," special CBI judge Bharat Parashar said.
"Counsel has submitted that the warrant came to be issued as he himself could not appear on time and exemption of accused from personal appearance was to be sought through him. Accused R C Rungta is warned to be careful in future," the court said.
During the day, the court also heard arguments of advocate Rajiv Mohan, who appeared for R C Rungta, on a plea moved by CBI seeking its permission to file some documents before it.
The court, however, noted in its order that after hearing the counsel, it found that there was "repeated change" in his stand.
It asked the defence counsel to file written submissions, if any, positively by May 5 and reserved its order on the plea for May 14.
It had earlier stayed till today the NBW issued against R C Rungta on April 23 after his counsel assured the court that the accused would appear before it today.
The court had issued NBW against Rungta observing that neither he had appeared before it nor his main counsel was present during the hearing to move an application seeking exemption from personal appearance for his client.
JIPL's directors R C Rungta and R S Rungta along with the firm are accused of securing allotment of North Dhadu coal block in Jharkhand allegedly on the basis of false and forged documents.
Both the Rungtas' were granted bail by the court earlier after they had appeared before it in pursuance to summons issued against them.
Besides these three, two other persons - Ramabatar Kedia and Naresh Mahto - were also summoned as accused in the case but both of them have died and the proceedings against them were abated by the court.
The court had on March 16 framed charges against JIPL and both the Rungtas' for alleged offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery of valuable security, forgery for the purpose of cheating and using a forged document as genuine.
In its charge sheet, CBI has alleged that it had found in the probe that JIPL had "grossly misrepresented" a number of aspects before the ministries of Steel and Coal to inflate their claim, thereby inducing Coal Ministry officers and the screening committee to allocate the coal block to them.
