New Delhi [India], September 10 (ANI): A Rouse Avenue court on Thursday accepted the closure report filed by the CBI in the Nippon Denro Ispat Ltd coal block case. Former MP Sandeep Dikshit and MP Manickam Tagore had challenged the closure report through protest petitions.
The court has accepted the closure report and dismissed the protest petitions.
Special CBI judge (coal block cases) Virender Kumar Kharta pronounced the order and said, "Closure report accepted."
A detailed copy of judgement will be uploaded by the court.
Additional Legal Advisor Sanjay Kumar appeared for the CBI. Petitioners' counsel were also present physically and through video conferencing.
Rouse Avenue Court on September 1 reserved the order on the protest petitions moved by Congress leaders Sandeep Dikshit and Manickam Tagore.
On June 5, both counsels for the complainant submitted that in their respective protest petition and application u/s 156 (3) CrPC, they are confining their prayer only to the summoning of the accused based on the material in the chargesheet, already on record and not pressing any other relief.
Rouse Avenue Court on July 10, 2024, issued notice to seven political leaders, including Minister of State Ravneet Singh, Manickam Tagore, Sandeep Dikshit, Harish Chaudhary, Lal Singh, Raghuveer Singh Meena, and Ijyaraj Singh, on the closure report filed by the CBI.
A complaint was given by seven MPs on September 5, 2012, alleging irregularities in allocation of coal blocks during 1993 to 2004.
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) recently filed a closure report and opined that, during the investigation, no offence of criminal conspiracy, cheating, and abuse of official position was committed by any public servant or private entity, including the FIR-named company Nippon Denro Ispat Limited (Presently dissolved and merged into JSW Steel Limited), said the order passed by the court on July 10.
Another complaint was given on September 14, 2012, by then MP Sandeep Dikshit, in which he had given a list of coal blocks which required in-depth investigation into the process and manner in which those were allocated. He gave a list of 24 coal blocks with his letter of September 14, 2012, and the Khiloni coal block, which was the subject matter of investigation in this case, was not one of the coal blocks named by Sandeep Dikshit, the court noted in the order.
However, he reiterated in his letter of September 14, 2012 that allocation of coal needs complete investigation since the inception of the new policy in 1993.
The court also noted that the complaint of September 5, 2012 was made by seven MPs; the letter of September 14, 2012 was signed only by Sandeep Dikshit, mentioning that other MPs were not in Delhi and he was sending the letter and list on behalf of other MPs.
On a reference by the Director, CVC, a Preliminary Enquiry (PE) was initiated for a detailed inquiry in the matter. Thereafter, a Regular Case (RC) was registered by the CBI.
Earlier, it was submitted by the CBI that these MPs gave a general complaint; they were against this accused company. However, the court noticed these political leaders.
" In the opinion of the court, before considering the closure report, a notice is required to be issued to the seven aforesaid complainants in the matter," the special judge had said in the order of July 10, 2024. (ANI)
Delhi Court accepts CBI's closure report in M/s Nippon Denro Ispat Ltd. coal block case
