Heena Sharma Blog

  A Special CBI court on Monday sentenced former Union Minister Dilip Ray to three-years imprisonment in a coal block allocation case . Ray was the Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1999. The case pertains to allocation of 105.153 hectares of non-nationalised and abandoned coal mining area in Jharkhand's Giridih district in favour of Castron Technologies Limited by 14th Screening Committee of the Ministry of Coal in 1999. Special Judge Bharat Parashar also awarded three years term each to two senior officials of the Ministry of Coal at that time -- Pradip Kumar Banerjee and Nitya Nand Gautam -- and Castron Technologies Limited's Director Mahendra Kumar Agarwalla. The CBI had earlier urged the court to award life imprisonment to Ray and other convicts to send a message to the society as white-collar crimes were on a rise. Read More

  The CBI urged a Delhi court on Wednesday to award life imprisonment to former Union minister Dilip Ray who has been convicted in a coal scam case pertaining to irregularities in the allocation of a Jharkhand coal block in 1999. Special Judge Bharat Parashar reserved the order for October 26 after hearing arguments from the CBI as well the convicts. Besides Ray, former minister of state (coal) in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, the CBI also sought life imprisonment for other convicts in the case including two senior officials of the Ministry of Coal at that time, Pradip Kumar Banerjee and Nitya Nand Gautam, and Castron Technologies Ltd's (CTL) director Mahendra Kumar Agarwalla. Besides, the prosecution sought imposition of maximum fine on CLT and Castron Mining Ltd (CML), also held guilty in the case. Read More