Companies made fraudulent claims to get coal blocks: CBI

The CBI has alleged that some companies which were allotted coal blocks between 2006 and 2009 had "misrepresented" facts and made "fraudulent" claims to "embellish" their applications to get the allotments.

The agency also accused officials of Coal Ministry of entering into conspiracy and "wilfully" not scrutinising the documents to allow "undue advantage" for the companies in getting the blocks.

The CBI, in its four FIRs filed in a court here, has named private firms – M/s Jas Infrastructure Capital Pvt Ltd (JICPL), M/s AMR Iron and Steel Pvt Ltd, M/s Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Ltd and M/s Navabharat Power Pvt Ltd – as accused. Besides these four firms, their directors along with some unknown public servants of the Ministry of Coal and Jharkhand and others have also been named in the FIRs lodged on September 3 after a preliminary inquiry which was initiated on the reference of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).

CBI told the court that a regular case has been registered under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating) of the IPC and 13 (2) read with 13 (1) (d) of Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 against AMR Iron and Steel Pvt Ltd, Nagpur, its directors namely Arvind Kumar Jayaswal, Manoj Jayaswal, Ramesh Jayaswal, Devendra Darda, son of Vijay Darda alongwith unknown public servants of Minister of Coal and unknown others.

The agency, in its FIRs against JICPL, Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Ltd and Navabharat Power Pvt Ltd, has said that in order to "embellish its claim for allocation of coal block", these firms "fraudulently" claimed that they were having the required net worth to get the coal mines.

"Enquiry also revealed that officials of the Ministry of Coal in pursuance of criminal conspiracy, wilfully and purposefully, did not scrutinise the aforesaid documents regarding the false claims/concealment of facts by Navabharat Power Pvt Ltd and thus facilitated the company in getting undue advantage in allocation of the Rampia and Dip Side of Rampia Coal Blocks," the CBI said.

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