New Delhi: A special court Tuesday put on trial Delhi-based Rathi Steel and Power Limited (RSPL) and its three officials in a coal blocks allocation scam case, saying they had conspired and furnished wrong information to get the blocks and "misappropriated" nationalised natural resources.
The court framed charges against RSPL and its three top officials - Managing Director Pradeep Rathi, Chief Executive Officer Udit Rathi and AGM Kushal Aggarwal, for the alleged offences of cheating and criminal conspiracy.
"The company M/s RSPL by obtaining the allocation of impugned coal block by furnishing wrong information not only deprived other applicant companies of having allocation of a coal block in their favour but also managed to misappropriate important nationalised natural resources of the country i.E. coal," Special Judge Bharat Parashar said.
"It is prima facie clear that facts of the present case presents a picture where grave suspicion arises against the accused persons that they all prima facie conspired together to cheat the Screening Committee and thereby MOC by furnishing wrong information so as to procure allotment of a coal block," the court said.
The framing of charges came in a case pertaining to alleged irregularities in allocation of Kesla North coal block in Chhattisgarh to RSPL.
"I am of the considered opinion that the facts and circumstances of the present case raise grave suspicion against all the four accused persons, namely company M/s RSPL, Udit Rathi, Pradeep Rathi and Kushal Aggarwal, warranting framing of charge against them for the offence under section 120-B read with section 420 of IPC and also charge for the substantive offence under section 420 of IPC against accused Udit Rathi and M/s RSPL", the judge said.
All the accused pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.
The court rejected the contention of the defence counsel that entries of the feedback form for coal block allocation submitted by the company should be read conjointly and mentioning of the fact that 250 acres of land has since been acquired, was only an "inadvertent representation".
"Thus prima facie mentioning of the fact that 250 acres of land has already been acquired by the company and thereby concealing the fact that the process of acquiring the land was still underway prima facie amounts to dishonest concealment of facts," the court said in its order.
The court also rejected the argument that accused Pradeep Rathi, the company's MD, cannot be roped in as accused primarily on the basis of the principle of "alter ego".
"I may reiterate that while summoning accused Pradeep Rathi, this court did not take resort to the principle of 'alter ego' as the overall facts and circumstances of the present case clearly shows that there were specific overt acts of commission and omission on the part of accused Pradeep Rathi warranting his summoning for the offences under section 120-B read with 420 (criminal conspiracy with cheating) of IPC," the judge added.
The court said prima facie it was clear that Pradeep Rathi continued to remain actively involved in the entire matter of allocation of coal block, along with the officers earlier authorised by the Board of Directors of the company.
It said he was present along with other accused at the time of making presentation before the Screening Committee.
The court said when there are specific acts of omission and commission on the part of certain officers or directors including the Managing Director of a company and the offence prima facie committed was that of criminal conspiracy, then all such persons could be prima facie held liable at the stage of considering the issue of framing of charge.
"However, Pradeep Rathi in the present case is being prima facie held liable as there are specific overt acts of commission and omission attributable to him," the court said.
Detailing the prima facie role of co-accused CEO Udit Rathi, the court said it was clear that by signing the feedback form containing false information, he "deceived and induced the Screening Committee and thereby Ministry of Coal (MoC) authorities to allocate Kesla North Coal block to RSPL".
Regarding the other accused official, Kushal Aggarwal, the court said he was one of the authorised officer on behalf of RSPL to deal with coal block application with MOC was duly present along with Pradeep Rathi and Udit Rathi at the time of making presentation before Screening Committee.
"He thus cannot prima facie shirk away from his responsibility by merely stating that when the CEO or Managing Director of the company were present then he cannot be held liable for furnishing of any wrong information if at all it has been furnished," the court said.
Regarding RSPL, the court saidt the matter does not require any detailed deliberation at this stage as the "wrong information" in the feedback form was furnished by Udit Rathi on behalf of RSPL, being its CEO and one of the three authorised officers.
It also rejected the defence counsel argument that RSPL has not yet started extraction of coal and thus no wrongful gain was caused to it or no wrongful loss was caused either to MOC or to any third party. It also rejected the contention that even the Supreme Court had not imposed any penalty on the companies which had not yet started extraction of coal.
"In fact, all those companies caused indirect loss to the country by sitting over the important nationalised natural resources of the country and thereby causing hindrance in the development both economic and infrastructure of the country," the court said.
The three individual accused were earlier granted bail by the court after they had appeared before it pursuant to the summons issued against them.
CBI had charge sheeted RSPL and Udit Rathi only as an accused for the alleged offences of criminal conspiracy and cheating.
After consideration of charge sheet, the court had issued summons to all four accused, including Pradeep Rathi and Kushal Aggarwal.
It had noted that these officials had appeared before the screening committee for making a presentation and submitting a feedback form on February 7, 2008 on behalf of RSPL.
CBI had lodged an FIR against RSPL, its directors, Udit Rathi and members of the 36th screening committee and other unnamed persons for the offences under sections 120-B, 420 of IPC and under Prevention of Corruption Act.
A charge sheet was later filed against RSPL and Udit Rathi only. Regarding other directors of RSPL or members of the 36th screening committee, CBI had said allegations against them could not be substantiated during the probe.
