New Delhi: Ex-BJD MP and the former Union Minister of State for coal Dilip Ray can heave a sigh of relief as the Delhi High Court has suspended the 3-year jail term pronounced by the Special CBI Court here for Ray in a case pertaining to irregularities in the allocation of a coal block in Jharkhand in 1999.
Ray was granted bail on a surety of Rs 1 lakh hours after the Special CBI Court pronounced the quantum of punishment on Monday. The Court had also granted time till November 25 to appeal in High Court.
Ray, a hotelier now, was the Minister of State (MoS) for Coal in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA when his party Biju Janata Dal (BJD), led by Naveen Patnaik, was a partner in the alliance government in 1999.
Along with Ray, the Special CBI Court on October 6 had convicted two former senior officials of the Ministry of Coal — Pradip Kumar Banerjee, the then Additional Secretary and Nitya Nand Gautam, former advisor (Projects), Castron Technologies Limited, its director Mahendra Kumar Agarwalla and Castron Mining Limited in the case for charges dealing with criminal conspiracy and other offences. The case pertains to allocation of Brahmadiha coal block in Giridih in Jharkhand to CTL in 1999.
The court held them guilty of the offences under 120-B (criminal conspiracy) 409 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Besides this, Castron Technologies Limited, Mahesh Kumar Agarwalla and Castron Mining Limited were also held guilty for the offence under 379 (punishment for theft) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. The court further imposed Rs 60 lakh on CLT and Rs 10 lakh on Castron Mining Ltd (CML), also held guilty in the case, reported PTI.