Delhi court acquits former minister's brother in coal block case, slams probe

A special CBI court in Delhi has acquitted the brother of former Union minister Subodh Kant Sahay and others in a coal block allocation case, strongly criticising the prosecution's investigation and evidence.

The former minister's brother, Sudhir Kumar Sahay, was one of the directors of SKS Ispat & Power Ltd who was accused in the case.

"The entire case of prosecution for the offence of criminal conspiracy is based on conjectures and surmises without any substantial basis," special judge Sunena Sharma observed in the 271-page judgment last week.

"The prosecution has failed miserably against all the accused for lack of any iota of evidence, direct or indirect" to prove conspiracy under Section 120B of IPC, the judge said.

The case, one of the 53 under the alleged "coal scam", arose from a 2012 reference by the central vigilance commission into alleged irregularities in coal block allocations between 2006 and 2009.

CBI had alleged that SKS and its office bearers falsely inflated the company's investments, land possession, production capacity and environmental clearances to secure allocation of the Vijay Central Coal Block in Chhattisgarh.

It also alleged that Sudhir Kumar Sahay falsely projected himself as a director and attempted to influence the process through recommendation letters, including one routed through his brother.

However, noting that mining rights were vested with Coal India Limited and not SKS, the court questioned how the private company could have dishonestly obtained any wrongful gain and held that the allocation letter "cannot be treated as grant of largesse" and that it was "more in the nature of coal linkage."

Rejecting allegations regarding inflated financial strength, the court noted that the figures relied upon by SKS came from "audited balance sheets/annual reports" and were never alleged to be forged by CBI itself.

On the question of recommendation letters, Neeraj Chaudhari, counsel for Sahay, argued they were "never taken into consideration by the ministry of coal or screening".

The court agreed, observing there was "absolutely no evidence on record" to show the letters influenced the screening committee.

It also termed the prosecution's interpretation of land and environmental clearances "too far-fetched" and "completely unjustifiable".

In 2014, Supreme Court had cancelled 214 coal block allocations made between 1993 and 2010 while ordering trials before a special CBI court.