New Delhi:- A special court has framed cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy charges against Adhunik Corporation Ltd and its two directors in a coal block allocation case.
Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar put the firm and its two directors, Nirmal Kumar Agarwal and Mahesh Kumar Agarwal, on trial in the case of alleged irregularities in allocation of Patrapara coal block in Odisha to the firm.
The charges for the offence, allegedly committed under sections 420 (cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy), were framed after the accused denied allegations and said they will contest the charges.
While framing charges, the court said that prima facie there was evidence to start trial against the accused.
The court had on January 15 last year granted bail to the accused persons on a personal bond of Rs one lakh each with one surety of like amount after they appeared in pursuance of summons.
The court had summoned the firm and its two directors for alleged offences under sections 120-B, 420, 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 471 of the IPC after taking cognisance of CBI’s charge sheet.
In its charge sheet, the CBI had alleged that the 30th Screening Committee had recommended M/s Adhunik Corporation Ltd for part allocation of Patrapara coal block.
“During the course of investigation, it was found that M/s Adhunik Corporation Ltd had misrepresented on various aspects both to Ministry of Steel and thereby to Ministry of Coal with a view to cheat them so as to procure allocation of Patrapara coal block,” CBI had said in its charge sheet.
While taking cognisance of the charge sheet, the court had discharged another director of the firm, Ghanshyam Das Agarwal, who was also chargesheeted by CBI in the case, saying there was no sufficient incriminating evidence on record which could lead to his summoning as an accused in the matter.
PTI
