The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday filed its first chargesheet in a Delhi court in the coal blocks allocation case against Navabharat Power Pvt Ltd and its two directors, accusing them of conspiring and cheating by allegedly misrepresenting facts to “embellish” its applications to get allotments between 2006 and 2009. CBI’s move to file the chargesheet, which is over 9,000 pages, before the Patiala House court came hours before it was scheduled to apprise the Supreme Court about the ongoing investigation in the case. This is the first chargesheet filed by the CBI, which has registered 16 FIRs till date in the case against various firms and top corporates, including industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and Congress Member of Parliament, Naveen Jindal. It is learnt that Navabharat Power Pvt Ltd, its two directors — P Trivikrama Prasad and Y Harish Chandra Prasad — were named as accused in the chargesheet filed before Special CBI Judge Madhu Jain. It is also learnt that they have been chargesheeted under Sections 420 (cheating) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. Incidentally, the chargesheet makes no mention of provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, which was mentioned in the FIR lodged by the CBI on September 3, 2012. It is learnt, however, that CBI has said in its 32-page final report that the probe against unknown public servants in the case is underway and they may file a supplementary chargesheet soon.On Monday, only the operative portion of the charge sheet has been filed before the court and the CBI is likely to file the documents and annexures by March 27, the next date of hearing in the case. CBI, in its FIR filed on September 3, 2012, had named Navabharat Power Pvt Ltd and its two directors along with some unknown public servants of the ministry of coal and others in the case. The FIR was lodged after a preliminary enquiry was initiated by the CBI on a reference by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). In the FIR, CBI had also accused unknown officials of the coal ministry of entering into conspiracy and “wilfully” not scrutinising documents to allow “undue advantage” for the company in getting the blocks. The agency, in its FIR against Navabharat Power Pvt Ltd, had said that in order to “embellish its claim for allocation of coal block”, the firm “fraudulently” claimed that it was having the required net worth to get the coal mines. CBI had said that after allocation of coal blocks, the promoters and shareholders of Navabharat Power sold off their shareholdings in July 2010 to Essar Power Ltd and its subsidiary company at “huge profit of over Rs 200 crore”. However, it is learnt that Essar Power has not been named as an accused. File 5 chargesheets by March 28: SC New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday refused to grant four weeks to CBI to file five of the six chargesheets in the Coal block allocation case and directed it to do so by March 28. It also questioned CBI over delay in filing of chargesheets despite recording a statement on February 10 that it would be done within three weeks. The court said that the agency must work in a time-bound manner and take the matter to a logical end. ENS
