Coal Block Allocation Scam: Delhi Court Discharges Ex-Minister of State Santosh Bagrodia, Ex-MP Vijay Darda & Others

A Delhi Court on Monday discharged the former Minister of State (Coal) Santosh Bagrodia, former MP Vijay Darda and others in relation to the Coal Block Allocation scam.The allegations in the case were regarding certain irregularities in the Bander Coal Block allocation. The prosecution's case was that a company, M/s AMR Iron & Steel Pvt. Ltd, misrepresented its application to the Ministry of Coal with respect to the availability of land and water. It was alleged that the company misrepresented to embellish its net worth by claiming it to be SPV of Lokmat Group of Darda family. It was alleged that Bander Coal Block was allotted to M/S AMR as a quid pro quo, a sum of Rs. 24.6 crores was given by Manoj Kumar Jayaswal (one of the directors of M/s AMR) through Kolkata-based shell companies to M/s ASERA Banka, a company controlled by Dardas for help given by Vijay Darda and his son Devender Darda in allocation of the said coal block.Special Judge Arun Bhardwaj (PC Act) of Rouse Avenue Court, New Delhi, discharged ex-MoS Santosh Bagrodia, ex-MP Vijay Darda and his son Devender Darda and Ex. Additional Legal Advisor of CBI K. Sudhakar, noting that there was no material to prove charges of criminal conspiracy and corruption. In respect of Santosh Bagrodia, the Court noted that the chargesheet for the present case is the third trial against Bagrodia. It referred to a 2019 order, where Bagrodia was discharged from the corruption case in the allocation of Bander coal block AMR Iron and Steel Company Ltd.The Court observed “The most important fact for the purposes of order on charge in respect of Santosh Bagrodia is that he stands discharged. That order was never challenged. That order is not taken into consideration while filing the present chargesheet.”Further, the Court noted that charges against Vijay Darda were that as an MP, he wrote several letters to then Prime Minister/Minister of Coal, late Dr Manmohan Singh, requesting allocation of a coal block to M/s. AMR.The prosecution had submitted that Vijay Darda visited the residence of Ranjit Sinha thrice and his son Devender Darda visited the residence of Ranjit Sinha on twelve occasions. With respect to this, the Court noted "Therefore, so far as Devender Darda is concerned, his meetings with Ranjit Sinha made no difference to the outcome of case against him and he was recommended to be prosecuted for the offences recommended from IO of the case till the Additional Director, CBI."The Court opined that Ranjit Sinha did not abuse his authority to scuttle the case against Devender Darda. It said “The fact that Ranjit Sinha did not dilute the charge against Vijay Darda shows that he showed no favour to Vijay Darda and recommended appropriately framing the charge against Vijay Darda under section 9 of PC Act.”With these observations, the Court discharged all the accused. Case title: CBI vs. K. Sudhakar & OrsAppearances: For CBI: Sh. A.P. Singh, Ld. DLA for CBI with Sh. Sanjay Kumar, Ld. ALA for CBI and Sh. N.P. Srivastava, Ld. DLA for CBI.For Accused: Sh. Naveen Kumar, assisted by Adv. Aditi Raghav Arora, Adv. Abhishek Mahal & Adv. Tushar Agarwal Ld. Counsel for A-1 K. Sudhakar; Sh. Mudit Jain with Ms. Garima Singh, Ld. Counsels for A-2 and A3 Vijay Dadra and Devendra Darda; Sh. N. Hariharan, Ld. Sr. Advocate with Sh. V. Siddharth, Ld. Counsel for A-4 Santosh Kumar Bagrodia. Click Here To Read/Download Order

Coal Block Allocation Scam: Delhi Court Discharges Ex-Minister of State Santosh Bagrodia, Ex-MP Vijay Darda & Others

Sanjana Dadmi