Coal case against Jindal:Interim bail of 5 fresh accused extended

A Delhi court today extended till May 25 the interim bail of five fresh accused named by the CBI in its supplementary charge sheet in a coal scam case against Congress leader and industrialist Naveen Jindal and others.

Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar extended the relief to accused- Jindal Steel's adviser Anand Goel, Gurgaon-based Green Infra's Vice-President Siddharth Madra, Nihar Stocks Ltd Director BSN Suryanarayan, Mumbai-based KE International's Chief Financial Officer Rajeev Aggarwal and Mumbai's Essar Power Ltd Executive Vice-Chairman Sushil Kumar Maroo - after noting that the CBI has not yet supplied them all documents.

The court also took strong objection to the delay in supply of case-related documents and directed a CBI officer of SP rank to personally look into the matter.

It also directed the SP to remain personally present at every hearing of the case till further orders.

The case pertains to allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand.

Earlier, the CBI had opposed the regular bail plea of two of the five accused persons - Goel and Maroo - alleging that they tried to hamper the investigation and threatened witness Suresh Singhal in the case.

The names of these five persons were revealed by Singhal, a chartered accountant, who was earlier charge sheeted by the CBI as accused in the case.

The court had summoned the five new persons as accused after taking cognisance of the supplementary charge sheet filed by the CBI on March 24.

Besides Jindal, the case also involves former Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao and ex-Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda.

The court had earlier asked the agency to expeditiously file its further probe report.

The CBI had alleged that Koda had favoured Jindal group firms -- Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) and Gagan Sponge Iron Pvt Ltd (GSIPL) -- in allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand.

All the accused had denied the allegations levelled against them and said there was no evidence to show that there was any conspiracy during the coal block allocation process.

-PTI