A special CBI court in Delhi convicted former coal secretary HC Gupta and two other bureaucrats for irregularities in allocation of a coal block in Madhya Pradesh to KSSPL.
Gupta, 69, was the coal secretary for two years under the UPA government before he retired in 2008. He chaired crucial meetings on coal rights and did not allow an open auction for allocation under the then Manmohan Singh ministry.
Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar also convicted the coal ministry's then joint secretary KS Kropha and director KC Samaria, besides others. The order on quantum of sentence will be pronounced on 22 May.
Besides Gupta, Kropha, and Samria, the court also convicted the private firm KSSPL and its managing director Pawan Kumar Ahluwalia.
The court, however, acquitted chartered accountant Amit Goyal in the case.
During the hearing, the CBI had alleged that the application filed by the KSSPL for the coal block was incomplete and was supposed to be rejected by the ministry as it was not in accordance with the guidelines issued.
The CBI had charged that the firm had misrepresented its net worth and existing capacity, adding that the state government had also not recommended the firm for the allocation of any coal block.
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