Coal scam: Court orders framing of additional charge against Naveen Jindal

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

Special judge Bharat Parashar said the charge will formally be framed against the accused on August 16.

The court had in April, 2016 ordered framing of charges against Jindal, former MoS for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao (since deceased), former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, former Coal Secretary H C Gupta and 11 others for the alleged offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust under the IPC and sections of Prevention of Corruption Act in the case.

However, the bribery charge was not framed then.

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

In today's order, the court said the charge of bribery (punishable under section 7 of Prevention of Corruption Act) is made out against Rao, but since he was deceased, the charge will not be framed against him.

The court also ordered framing of section 120B (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.