A special court on Tuesday ticked off the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for not supplying the papers to all accused persons, including former Minister of State for Coal Santosh Bagrodia, in a coal scam case, saying it was “creating problems” and directed the agency to provide a 200-page document to them within a stipulated time-frame.
The court’s observation came after defence counsel moved applications, saying some of the documents supplied to them by CBI were not legible.
The prosecutor told the court that he would ensure all the copies, which are deficient, are supplied to accused. “I am surprised how a complete set of one document running into around 200 pages have not been supplied to the accused,” Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar <g data-gr-id="35">said,</g> while asking the agency about it. Responding to the court’s query, senior public prosecutor AP Singh said there were three lists of documents, which have been filed by the CBI in the case. The judge said: “This is creating problems. You file a consolidated list of documents of all files.”
The prosecutor said CBI would file a consolidated list of all documents in the court and also supply it to accused. He added it would also provide copies of deficient documents sought by defence counsel by next date of hearing.
“You supply the documents as sought by the accused. The consolidated list of documents should be supplied to accused three-four days prior to the next date of hearing so that they may cross check it with documents supplied to them earlier,” the judge said and fixed the matter for October 12.
The case pertains to alleged irregularities in the allocation of Fatehpur (East) coal block in Chhattisgarh to accused firm M/s JLD Yavatmal Energy Pvt Ltd. Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda and six others, including his son Devendra Darda and former Coal Secretary HC Gupta, are accused in the case.
The court had earlier granted bail to Vijay Darda, Gupta Devendra, two senior government servants – K S <g data-gr-id="26">Kropha</g> and K C <g data-gr-id="27">Samria</g> – and businessman Manoj Kumar Jayaswal in the case.