Coal scam: Court to hear case against MP Vijay Darda on September 29

New Delhi: A special court on Thursday decided to hear next month a coal block allocation scam case in which Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda and six others, including his son Devendra Darda and former Coal Secretary H C Gupta, are accused.

During the hearing, the CBI supplied hard copies of the documents filed along with its final report to the accused, after which the court fixed the case for scrutiny of documents on September 29.

"Hard copy of the documents have been supplied today. E-copy of the documents have already been supplied to accused persons. Put up for scrutiny of documents on September 29," Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar said.

The case pertains to alleged irregularities in allocation of Fatehpur (East) coal block in Chhattisgarh to accused firm M/s JLD Yavatmal Energy Pvt Ltd.

The court had earlier granted bail to Vijay Darda, Devendra Darda, H C Gupta, two senior public servants, K S Kropha and K C Samria and businessman Manoj Kumar Jayaswal in the case.

The court had issued summons against the accused for the alleged offences under section 120B (criminal conspiracy) read with 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) and 420 (cheating) of IPC and under relevant provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.

It had on November 20 last year refused to accept CBI's closure report filed in the case and had directed the agency to conduct further probe into the matter while saying that the Rajya Sabha MP had allegedly "misrepresented" facts in letters written to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was holding the Coal Ministry portfolio.