Coal scam: Court to hear arguments on May 27

A special court on Wednesday fixed May 27 for hearing arguments on framing of charges in a coal blocks allocation scam case in which former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda and eight others are accused.

The matter came up for hearing before Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar where one of the accused moved an application under the provision of CrPC for summoning entire file relating to the sanction granted by the competent authority to try public servants in the case.

One of the public servants and an accused in the case, Bipin Bihari Singh, also moved an application seeking discharge in the case.

"Put up on May 27 for arguments on the charge on behalf of remaining accused persons and also for consideration of the aforesaid applications under section 91 CrPC and under section 239 CrPC," the court said.

Besides Koda and Bipin Bihari Singh, the other accused in the case are -- ex-Chief Secretary of Jharkhand Ashok Kumar Basu, former Coal Secretary H C Gupta, public servant Basant Kumar Bhattacharya, Kolkata-based Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Ltd (<g data-gr-id="23">VISUL</g>), its Director Vaibhav Tulsyan, chartered accountant Navin Kumar Tulsyan and Koda's alleged close aide Vijay Joshi.

These eight individual accused were granted bail by the court after they had appeared before it in pursuance to the summons issued against them.

The case pertains to alleged irregularities in allocation of Rajhara North coal block in Jharkhand to <g data-gr-id="17">VISUL</g>. While granting bail to the eight individual accused, the court had observed that Koda and others holding high positions had allegedly misappropriated the natural resource.