Special CBI court convicts former Coal Secretary HC Gupta, 2 others in coal scam case

Former joint secretary KS Kropha and then director KC Samaria were also convicted in the case pertaining to the allocation of a coal mining block in Madhya Pradesh to a private company.

According to media reports, Gupta, now 69, was Coal Secretary for two years under the Congress-led UPA regime prior to his retirement in 2008. He was booked in eight cases and was accused of not following a transparent policy.

During his tenure reportedly 40 cases of mining rights were cleared. He used to chair the screening committee.

The CBI in its charge-sheet had claimed that the accused persons and SKS Ispat and Power Ltd (SIPL) had misrepresented facts about the land and the company's net worth before the Screening Committee to get the mining contract for the Fatehpur Coal Block in Chhattisgarh, media reported.

CBI had registered the case in 2014.

The coal scam had sprung into headlines after the Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) report on coal block allocation estimated a loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore to the national exchequer owing to irregular allocations.

The CAG named 25 private companies as beneficiaries of coal block allocations in various states. They included companies like Essar Power, Hindalco, Tata Power, Tata Steel and Jindal Steel and Power Ltd.

The allocations date back to the time when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was holding the portfolio.

Gupta had claimed that the former PM had given the "final approval" in the case. 

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