Three sentenced in coal scam case

NEW DELHI: A special court on Wednesday sentenced three officials of Rathi Steel and Power Ltd (RSPL) to jail terms of up to three years in Kesla North coal scam case.

It observed the country had suffered a “huge loss” because of “unscrupulous acts” of CEO Udit Rathi, 34, MD Pradeep Rathi, 60, and AGM Kushal Aggarwal, 35. While Udit and Pradeep were sentenced to three years imprisonment each, Aggarwal got two-year jail term.

The court observed “white collar crimes” are more dangerous to society than ordinary crimes considering the damage they inflict on public morale. It added “financial losses caused are much higher” in such cases.

“It is...also true that to find criminality in such acts committed by white collar criminals is often a difficult task primarily because they are committed after much deliberations and planning undertaken by well trained minds having a higher status in society,” said special judge Bharat Parashar.

The three were later granted bail on a personal bond of Rs two lakh each and a surety of same amount as the court allowed their plea to suspend their sentence for one month for filing an appeal. They were taken into custody on Tuesday after the special court held them guilty of criminal conspiracy and cheating. The RSPL and Udit were directed to pay a fine of Rs 50 lakh each, Pradeep Rs 25 lakhs and Kushal five lakh.

The case pertains to irregularities in allocation of Kesla North coal block in Chhattisgarh to RSPL. The court rejected the contention of convicts that no loss was caused to anyone as coal was not extracted.

“...non-extraction of the coal in itself has caused huge loss to the country. Non-availability of such an important raw material has in fact caused an immense loss to the country in its journey to achieve higher infrastructural/industrial development,” the court said. The CBI had sought maximum sentence saying economic offences deserve no leniency.

Earlier, Jharkhand Ispat Private Limited directors R C Rungta and R S Rungta were sentenced to four-year jail term in North Dhadu coal block allocation scam case in April.