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Court Frames Additional Charge Against Naveen Jindal In Coal Scam

Delhi court adds charge of abetment to bribery against Naveen Jindal in a case of irregularities in a coal block allocation.

Naveen Jindal, vice chairman and managing director of Jindal Steel & Power Ltd. (Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg)
Naveen Jindal, vice chairman and managing director of Jindal Steel & Power Ltd. (Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg)

A special court in Delhi today framed an additional charge of abetment to bribery against Congress leader and industrialist Naveen Jindal in a case pertaining to irregularities in the allocation of a Jharkhand coal block.

Special judge Bharat Parashar framed the charges against the accused after Jindal said he was pleading not guilty and claimed trial.

The court had in April 2016 ordered framing of charges against Jindal, former Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao (since deceased), former Coal Secretary HC Gupta and 11 others for the alleged offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust under the Indian Penal Code and sections of Prevention of Corruption Act in the case.

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However, the charge under section 12 (punishment for abetment of offences), section 7 (public servant taking gratification) or section 11 of the Act wasn't framed then. The section 11 of the PCA includes public servant obtaining a valuable possession, without consideration from person concerned in proceeding or business transacted by such public servant.

The case pertains to allocation of the Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand.

The court had earlier said the charge under section 7 of the Act was made out against Rao, the charge will not be framed against him as he was deceased.

The court had also ordered framing of section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) against Jindal Steel’s then adviser Anand Goel, Nihar Stocks Ltd Director BSN Suryanarayan, and Mumbai’s Essar Power Ltd Executive Vice-Chairman Sushil Kumar Maroo.

The three were named in an additional charge sheet filed by the agency in the case.

All the accused have denied the allegations leveled against them and said there was no evidence to show that there was any conspiracy during the coal block allocation process.