Ex-NDA Minister gets Three Years Imprisonment in Coal Scam Case

Ex-NDA Minister gets Three Years Imprisonment in Coal Scam Case

On Monday, former union minister Dilip Ray was awarded three-year imprisonment by Delhi High Court in a scam case pertaining to irregularities in the allocation of a Jharkhand coal block in 1999.

Two senior officials of the Ministry of Coal, Pradeep Kumar Banerjee and Nitya Nand Gautam and Castron Technologies Pvt. Ltd’s (CTL) director Mahendra Kumar Agarwalla also awarded three-year imprisonment each by the Special CBI court.

The Special Judge Bharat Parashar along with imprisonment also imposed a fine of Rs. 10 lakh each on them.

 And also the court further awarded a fine of Rs. 60 lakh on Castor Technologies Pvt. Ltd. and Rs.10 lakh on Castron Mining Ltd. (CML) who was also found guilty in the case.

Former union minister Dilip Ray was Minister of State (Coal) in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government, earlier this month convicted under various sections including for criminal conspiracy by the same court.

Arguing that white-collar crimes are on the rise and maximum punishment is required to send the message to the society, CBI sought life imprisonment for the former Union Minister and other convicts in the case pertaining to the allocation of the Brahmadiha coal block in Giridih of Jharkhand to CTL in 1999.