Court concludes recording of accused statements

A special court on Wednesday concluded recording of statements of accused in a coal block allocation scam case in which firm Rathi Steel and Power Limited (RSPL) and its three officials are facing trial.

Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar has now fixed the case for January 13 next year for recording of defence evidence in the matter.

During the recording of statements of the accused, the court asked 98 questions each from the firm RSPL and its three top officials – Managing Director Pradeep Rathi, Chief Executive Officer Udit Rathi and AGM Kushal Aggarwal.

The court had earlier framed charges against RSPL and its three officials for the alleged offence of criminal conspiracy read with cheating under the IPC.

While framing charges against them, the court had observed that they had conspired and furnished wrong information to get coal block and misappropriated nationalised natural resources.

The case pertains to alleged irregularities in allocation of Kesla North coal block in Chhattisgarh to RSPL. All the accused have denied the allegations levelled against them by CBI.

The three accused were earlier granted bail after they had appeared before the court pursuant to the summons issued against them.