Address of JIPL’s office was found to be ‘bogus’: CBI official to court

CBI inspector Manoj Kumar, who appeared as a prosecution witness, deposed before the court that a Deputy Superintendent of Police, who was authorised to carry out searches at the JIPL office in Ghaziabad, had informed him that the address was “bogus”.

“The witness states that he now recollects that for carrying out search at the registered office of M/s Jharkhand Ispat Pvt Ltd at Ghaziabad, one other authorization letter was also issued to DSP, S P Rana on March 9, <g data-gr-id="25">2013</g> itself.

“Witness further <g data-gr-id="29">states</g> that when he returned to Delhi from Ranchi, he was told by DSP S P Rana that the address so given to him was bogus. Witness again states that DSP S P Rana told him that though the address given was available but there was no such office of M/s Jharkhand Ispat Pvt Ltd being run over there,” Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar noted.

Kumar told the court that under the supervision of CBI’s DIG Ravi Kant and SP Vivek Dutt, 11 teams were constituted for conducting searches at Ranchi and Ramgarh in Jharkhand, Kolkata, Varanasi and New Delhi.

He said in March 2013, he had gone to the house of JIPL’s director R C Rungta, an accused in the case, in Ranchi for carrying out search but “no incriminating document was found over there.”  Kumar also deposed that after he came back to Delhi from Ranchi, the other CBI officers, who had conducted searches at various places, gave him the documents seized by them.

“However, no incriminating documents were stated to have been recovered in the search operation carried out at Varanasi. The team leaders of the search team of Delhi and Kolkata however also gave me the documents recovered and seized by them,” he said, adding he has thereafter submitted the report of various searches carried out in the court.

JIPL and its two directors, R S Rungta and R C Rungta, are facing trial in the case in which they have been accused of securing allotment of North <g data-gr-id="30">Dhadu</g> coal block in Jharkhand allegedly on the basis of false and forged documents, a charge refuted by them. 

During the recording of statement, which would continue on July 27, the counsel for the accused told the court that some documents referred to by the witness was supplied to them today itself and they needed time to prepare for cross- examination. The accused are facing trial for alleged offences under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 467 (forgery of a valuable security), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 420 (cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the IPC.