New Delhi: The CBI on Friday, filed its final report on further probe in a coal scam case relating to allocation of blocks to Navbharat Power Pvt Ltd (NPPL) in a Delhi court which fixed it for consideration next month.
The final report along with list of additional documents was filed by the agency before Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar in pursuance to the court's direction.
"Final report of further investigation has been filed along with additional list of documents with documents by the investigating officer. Same be taken on record. Matter be now accordingly put up on June 2 for consideration," the court said.
The case pertains to alleged irregularities in allocation of coal block in Rampia in Odisha to NPPL.
The CBI had on May 11 told the court that they had not received any communication from Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on the issue of sanction to prosecute two senior public servants for their alleged roles in the case.
It had informed the court that as per guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court, the special court should presume that sanction to prosecute these public servants has been granted by the competent authority as more than four months have elapsed from the date when the file was sent to them.
The prosecutor had said CBI had sent the relevant files to the authorities in December last year in view of the court's November 12, 2014 order and they were awaiting a response on the issue.
The two public servants against whom court had directed CBI to place records of the case before sanctioning authority for according of sanction to prosecute them for the alleged offence under Prevention of Corruption Act, are K S Kropha, the then Joint Secretary of Ministry of Coal, and K C Samaria, the then Director in the ministry.
The court, in its November 12 last year's order, had said that acts of former Coal Secretary H C Gupta and then senior officials of the Ministry of Coal (MoC) in overlooking alleged misrepresentation by NPPL for acquiring coal block, prima facie amounted to criminal misconduct.
In its order, the court had observed that while Gupta has retired, Kropha and Samaria are still in service and prior sanction was required to prosecute them.
The agency had earlier informed the court that NPPL director K V B Reddy has intimated that name of the company has since been changed to M/s Brahmani Thermal Power Pvt Ltd.
CBI was earlier directed by the court to further probe the matter in which it had filed a charge sheet against NPPL, its Managing Director and Vice-
Chairman Y Harish Chandra Prasad and Chairman P Trivikrama Prasad.
The court had differed from CBI's conclusion that no malafide intention was found on part of the public servants, saying it was prima facie clear that decision of allocating coal block to NPPL was taken by the MoC officers and the screening committee, without keeping public interest in mind.
The court has kept pending the CBI's final reports in which it had earlier named NPPL and its two executives in a charge sheet. A supplementary report was later on filed saying no offence was found to have been committed by public servants.
The charge sheet was filed against NPPL and its officials for offences under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating) of IPC for allegedly misrepresenting facts, including inflated net worth, to acquire coal block.
CBI had earlier alleged that the net worth of the firm applying for coal blocks was an important factor to determine its financial strength and NPPL had fraudulently claimed in its application that it was supported by Globeleq Singapore Pvt Ltd, Navbharat Ventures Ltd and Mahalaxmi Group Ltd.
