Court summons Naveen Jindal, former coal secretary

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court Monday took cognisance of charges filed against industrialist Naveen Jindal, former coal secretary P C Parekh and others under IPC provisions relating to criminal conspiracy and cheating, and the Prevention of Corruption Act, in what it described as “one of the most voluminous chargesheets of coal block cases”.

Special judge Sunena Sharma issued summons to Naveen Jindal, JSPL, Parekh, Rakesh Kumar Jindal, Ram Kishore, S K Agarwal and Jindal Strips Ltd (now Nalwa Sons Investments Ltd), directing them to appear before the court on July 17.

According to CBI, Jindal Strips Ltd was allotted the Gare Palma IV/1 coal block in Chhattisgarh in 1996 for a sponge iron plant with a capacity of 0.6 MT per annum, despite the block containing substantially higher coal reserves. The approved mining lease area was fixed at 705 hectares, but the lease was allegedly executed beyond the area approved by Centre. CBI alleged that the irregularity was later regularised by a screening committee in 2005, which also proposed additional land beyond the approved area.

The court noted that when JSPL sought approval in March 2004 to increase production at the coal block from 2 MTPA to 6 MTPA, the coal ministry found discrepancies in lease boundaries and excess production and sought an explanation.  — Koushiki Saha