Coalgate: Ministry ‘interest’ in docs leaves CBI stumped

Noting that it has already provided all the relevant records, CBI said they have received a letter on June 11 from DoPT with reference to five cases in which documents were sent to them in pursuance to the court's directions for considering according of sanction to try two public servants, K S <g data-gr-id="47">Kropha</g> and K C <g data-gr-id="48">Samria</g>, for their alleged roles in coal scam cases.

It said in the letter, some documents including FIR, draft charge sheet, statement of witnesses, disclosure statements and other relevant materials were sought by the Ministry of Coal.

The CBI said that in the DoPT letter certain documents were sought for by Ministry, including "any material which may tilt the balance in favour of the accused."

CBI's prosecutor told the court that they have sent reply to DoPT's Secretary that all documents sought have been already sent along with the records and "any further relevant document as were sought for in the letter, can be looked into only after the same are specified".

"It has been thus submitted that in all the five cases referred to in letter dated June 11, 2015 all the <g data-gr-id="46">documents as were necessary for considering the issue of according sanction to prosecute the two public servants and as</g> have been now sought for were already sent in the necessary proforma to the DoPT on February 11, 2015 itself," Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar said.

"It was thus submitted by senior public prosecutor that it was beyond comprehension as to why the communication as referred to above was being made by DoPT or by Ministry of Coal when the entire record was already available with them," the judge noted in his order.

The court was hearing a coal scam case involving Nagpur- based Grace Industries Ltd (GIL) and others.

The court had earlier directed CBI to place records of the case before the competent authority so that they could consider according sanction to prosecute <g data-gr-id="43">Kropha</g>, former Joint Secretary in Coal Ministry, and Vishwas Sawakhande, then Director of Directorate of Geology and Mining in Maharashtra Government, for alleged offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

During the hearing, the agency told the court that even though all relevant records regarding Sawakhande was sent to the Maharashtra government on February 6, no communication has yet been received on the issue of according sanction.

The investigating officer (IO) informed the court that Sawakhande has retired on May 31, <g data-gr-id="29">2015</g> and he would obtain a final report from the state government on the fate of request sent by CBI.