Coal Gate Scam

Sakshi Patil
1901C0042
SY-BMS
 Introduction
The Coal allocation scam (or Coalgate) is a
major political scandal concerning the Indian
government's allocation of the nation's coal deposits to
public sector enterprise (PSEs) and private companies.
In a draft report issued in March 2012, the Comptroller
and Auditor General of India (CAG) office accused
the Government of India of allocating coal blocks in an
inefficient manner during the period 2004–2009. Over
the Summer of 2012, resulting in a Central Bureau of
Investigation probe into whether the allocation of the
coal blocks was in fact influenced by corruption
In a nutshell, the coal allocation scam, or ‘Coalgate’
as it is popularly referred to in the media, is a political
scandal that engulfed the UPA government in 2012.
The scam came to light after the Comptroller and
Auditor General of India (CAG) accused the
government of India for allocating 194 coal blocks to
public and private enterprises for captive use in a
flawed, ad hoc manner between 2004 and 2009.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India report
on the coal block allocations scam was finally tabled
in Parliament on August 17th. Though the staggering
figure of Rs 1.86 lakh crores mentioned in the final
report, is less than a sixth of the original figure of Rs
10.67 lakh crores in the earlier leaked draft, it's still a
mind-boggling figure and dwarfs the previous biggest
scam - the 2G spectrum allocation. And who were the
sole beneficiaries of this Rs 1.86 lakh crore handout?
Private companies
A special court of the Central Bureau of
Investigation sentenced former secretary H.C.
Gupta, former joint secretary in Coal
Ministry K.S. Kropha and former director of
Coal Ministry K.C. Samaria two years in
prison for their involvement in the Coal
Scam. They were, however, granted bail on
the same day and could now challenge the
sentence in High Court. The three were found
guilty under Prevention of Corruption Act
and Indian Penal Code. Among the charges,
one of the prime offences was abuse of public
office, securing pecuniary advantage without
public interest and criminal conspiracy. This
case dealt with alleged irregular allocation of
coal blocks in Madhya Pradesh to Kamal
Sponge Steel & Power Ltd. (KSSPL).

Industrialists like Naveen Jindal and Kumar

Mangalam Birla have also found their name
in FIRs in the Coal Scam probe. A report of
the parliamentary standing committee said
that the allocation of blocks between 1993
and 2008 had been unauthorized
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh offers to
give up his public life if found guilty in the
scam * May 31, 2012: CVC, based on a
complaint of two BJP MPs — Prakash
Javadekar and Hansraj Ahir — directs a CBI
enquiry
Two directors of Pawanjay Steel and Power
Limited (PSPL), Gyanchand Prasad Agarwal
(70) and Umesh Prasad Agarwal (58), were
sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for a
period of three years each for the offences
of criminal conspiracy (120-B of IPC) and
cheating (420 of IPC), while 65-year-old S K
Kanungo, Chief Manager (Marketing) of
Hari Machines Ltd (HML), was jailed for a
period of two years for the offence
punishable under 120-B of the IPC.

Special judge Bharat Parashar also imposed

a fine of Rs 75 lakh on the company, while
Rs 40 lakh each was imposed on the
Agarwal's. Besides, the court also directed
Kanungo to pay a fine of Rs one lakh.
PSPL and its two directors, along with Kanungo,
hatched a criminal conspiracy with a view to
deceive Ministry of Coal (MoC) so as to induce it
to allocate a captive coal block in favor of the
accused firm.

During the processing of their application, they

also furnished wrong information supported with
false documents to Ministry of Steel (MoS) so as
to deceive them and thereby inducing them to
make a recommendation in favor of PSPL to MoC
for allotment of a coal block.
It was also found that the accused had
furnished false information to the
Government of Jharkhand also so as to
deceive them and thereby inducing them to
make recommendation in favor of PSPL to
MoC for allotment of a captive coal block