Court Acquits SKS Ispat Ltd in Coal Block Allocation Case

A Delhi court has acquitted SKS Ispat and Power Ltd and four others, including the brother of former Union minister Subodh Kant Sahay, in a case related to alleged irregularities in the allocation of Chhattisgarh's Vijay Central Coal Block.

Special Judge Sunena Sharma acquitted M/s SKS Ispat & Power Ltd, its managing director Anil Gupta, joint managing director Deepak Gupta, manager Amrit Singh and designated director Sudhir Kumar Sahay of cheating and criminal conspiracy charges, saying the prosecution failed to establish the offences against them.

The CBI alleged that the company and the accused persons made ''willful concealments and deceptions'', including false claims and figures to show an advanced level of preparedness to secure the allocation of the coal block.

The agency claimed that they entered into a criminal conspiracy to cheat the Union Ministry of Coal to procure allocation of the captive coal block in favour of SKS Ispat and Power Ltd by making various false claims about networth, land, investment and clearances.

In a 271-page judgment pronounced on May 23, the court said, ''The evidence adduced on record is highly insufficient to conclusively establish any of the essential ingredients viz. deception, inducement, dishonest intention or wrongful gain for the alleged offence of cheating punishable under Section 420 of the IPC.''.

It said the prosecution has failed to substantiate the allegations against any of the accused beyond a reasonable doubt.

''The prosecution case for the charge of criminal conspiracy under Section 120 B of the IPC has also failed miserably against all the accused for lack of any iota of evidence, direct or indirect, to establish any prior meeting of the mind amongst the accused persons for the commission of the alleged offence,'' the court said.

Underlining that the prosecution's case for the charge of criminal conspiracy is ''based on conjectures and surmises without any substantial basis'', the court said there is absolutely no evidence to show that the recommendatory letter written by Subodh Kant Sahay or a letter by his brother was ever placed before the coal ministry's 36th screening committee to influence its decision for allocation.

It said that the prosecution's case regarding the alleged false claims of networth, investment, land, End Use Plant (EUP) capacity and clearance, has remained unproven.

''For lack of any cogent, concrete and conclusive evidence, the prosecution has failed to establish that said claims in the application or feedback form dated were false to the knowledge of accused; or that they were intentionally made to cheat the screening committee or Ministry of Coal to procure the allocation of coal block; or that the screening committee or ministry had got induced because of said exaggerated and false claims,'' the court said.

The CBI had registered more than 50 cases regarding the alleged coal scam.

Over 25 corruption cases filed by the CBI are currently pending before two special courts set up to try cases arising out of the alleged coal scam whereas 27 have been disposed of so far.

On January 16, 2025, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) informed the Supreme Court that 45 complaints, including supplementary ones, were pending under the PMLA.

The top court in 2014 quashed 214 coal blocks allocated by the Centre between 1993 and 2010 after taking note of two PILs and ordered a trial by a special CBI judge.

(With inputs from agencies.)