New Delhi: Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court will today (Monday) pronounce its verdict on the term of sentence of former coal secretary HC Gupta, who was convicted in the 2012 coal block allocation case in Maharashtra. Special Judge Arun Bhardwaj will deliver the verdict.
The court had on August 4, after hearing arguments from both sides, reserved its decision on the matter of the period of sentence. On July 29, the court convicted HC Gupta and former joint secretary KS Krofa of corruption. In this case, the court also convicted the accused Grace Industries and its director, Mukesh Gupta.In the 197-page judgment, the court said that HC Gupta, in three meetings with the former prime minister’s chief secretary, gave him false information regarding the allocation of Maharashtra’s Lohara East coal block.
The CBI registered a case in this case on September 20, 2012. The four convicted convicts were accused of hatching a criminal conspiracy to cheat the coal minister and the central government. These culprits conspired and helped in getting the allocation of the Lohara East coal block to Grace Industries. The convicts gave false information about the total assets of Grace Industries.
It is noteworthy that HC Gupta has been convicted in three coal block allocation scam cases even before this. Delhi’s Patiala House Court has sentenced HC Gupta to three years’ imprisonment in a coal block allocation case in Jharkhand on December 16, 2020. On December 5, 2018, HC Gupta was convicted in the case of irregularities in the allocation of Moira and Madhujor coal blocks in West Bengal. HC Gupta has been convicted for the allocation of Rajhara Koel block in Jharkhand on December 16, 2017.