New Delhi: A former top bureaucrat in the UPA government on Wednesday dragged the name of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the coalgate by telling a special court that he took the "ultimate decision" as the then coal minister in allocation of the coal blocks.
Former Coal Secretary H C Gupta, an accused in the case pertaining to alleged irregularities in allocation of Rajhara North coal block in Jharkhand to Kolkata-based Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Ltd (VISUL), said Singh had the "final authority" to take decisions.
Gupta's claim came a week after a similar statement by former Minister Dasari Narayan Rao, who had also alleged that the decision on final allocation "was taken by the Minister of Coal who was the then Prime Minister". Rao is an accused in another case relating to the allocation of coal block to Congress leader Naveen Jindal' group firms.
During the arguments on framing of charges today, Gupta's counsel argued that he was chairman of screening committee and was empowered to only recommend allocation of blocks whereas the minister-in-charge of the Coal Ministry was the "final authority" who took the decision.
"The ultimate power to allocate coal block was with the then Prime Minister of India (Singh), who was also the Coal Minister at that time," Gupta's counsel told Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar.
The counsel said that being the chairman of the screening committee, Gupta had sent the recommendation to the then "Coal Minister who after exercising all his wisdom and discretion, decided to allocate coal block to somebody (applicant firm)."
"Secretary of Coal Ministry does not have dominion over coal. Union of India was having part dominion (over it). The Coal Minister was having the dominion over the coal blocks," the counsel said.
He said secretary of a ministry was only an advisor of the minister-in-charge and the final decision was of the minister.
"Gupta cannot take decision on its own. Only the Minister of Coal was competent to take the final decision," he said.
During the hearing, lawyers for some of the co-accused also advanced their arguments on framing of charges. The court has now fixed the case for May 29 when CBI's prosecutor will rebut the arguments of the accused.
Gupta, along with eight others, including VISUL, former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, ex-Chief Secretary of Jharkhand Ashok Kumar Basu, are accused in the case.
During the hearing, Gupta's counsel told the court that if there was any negligence or inefficiency on the part of the coal secretary, then Coal Minister could have corrected it.
"For negligence or you can say inefficiency, a secretary cannot be hauled up ... It does not constitute criminal misconduct," he said.
The defence counsel also argued that the recommendation of the screening committee in this case was unanimous.
As the counsel was advancing the arguments, the court told him that Gupta was also accused in some other coal scam cases and if he was taking a stand during the arguments, it would be difficult for him to change it in other cases.
"I have a word of caution for H C Gupta. Incidentally, he is facing prosecution in some other cases also. So once you take a point of arguments in one case, it would be difficult for you to change it in other cases," the judge said.
To this, the counsel said he was conscious of this fact.
Besides Gupta, Koda, Basu and VISUL, the other accused in the case are -- public servants Bipin Bihari Singh and Basant Kumar Bhattacharya, VISUL's Director Vaibhav Tulsyan, Koda's alleged close aide Vijay Joshi and chartered accountant Navin Kumar Tulsyan.
These eight accused were earlier granted bail by the court after they had appeared before it in pursuance to the summons issued against them.
They were summoned as accused after the court took cognisance of alleged offences under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating) and 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servants) of IPC and under provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.
CBI, in its charge sheet, had said that VISUL had applied for allocation of Rajhara North coal block on January 8, 2007 to the Ministry of Coal.
CBI had alleged that although Jharkhand government and the Steel Ministry did not recommend VISUL's case for the coal block allocation, the 36th Screening Committee recommended the block to the accused firm.
