- Ray is convicted by CBI special judge with other accused
- Sentence is expected on 14 October.
- All the accused have been summoned to the special court for verdict.
A special CBI judge has convicted former Union Minister of State Dilip Ray for his involvement in the 1999 Jharkhand coal scam. Special Judge Bharat Parashar today convicted Ray and others for criminal conspiracy and other offenses.
In his decision, the special judge stated that the guilt of the accused has been established by the prosecution beyond “shadows of all reasonable doubts”
Accordingly, Dilip Ray has been convicted of conspiracy,cheating and criminal breach of trust under sections 120-B, 409 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code. Additionally, he has been found to have violated provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act; converting property for his own use and for taking illegal gratification.
In addition to Ray, the court also convicted Pradeep Kumar Banerjee and Nitya Nand Gautam, two former senior coal ministry officials, as well as Mahendra Kumar Aggarwal, director of Castron Technologies Limited.
The case relates to irregularities in allocation of Jharkhand coal blocks in 1999, when Ray was the Minister of State for Coal in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
The legal validity of the charge sheet filed against him by the CBI was taken by the accused and taken cognizance on the basis of it. It was argued that prior sanction was required before proceeding against him, as Ray, Gautam and Banerjee were servants. The special judge said all of them had demitted office at the time the chargesheet was filed and hence he was no longer a public servant for the application of the Prevention of Corruption Act, as his prosecution was concerned.
The amendment to the Act (section 19), which was necessary for sanction before the commencement of criminal prosecution even against retired public servants, was not applicable to the accused. The judge came to this conclusion because his prosecution began before the amendment took effect, and changes in procedural law generally did not work retrospectively
In the Paragraph number 468 of judgment, it is mentioned that “Since it has been now concluded beyond shadows of all reasonable doubts that all the five accused persons i.e. A-1 M/s. Castron Technologies Ltd., A-2 Mahendra Kumar Agarwalla, A-4 Dilip Ray, A-5 Pradip Kumar Banerjee and A-6 Nitya Nand Gautam conspired together so as to procure allocation of a captive coal block i.e. Brahmadiha coal block in favour of A-1 M/s CTL and finally achieved the said object of the criminal conspiracy by undertaking various acts of cheating MOC, Government of India by A-1 M/s CTL and A-2 M.K. Agarwalla and by various acts constituting the offence of criminal misconduct as defined under P.C. Act, 1988 by A-4 Dilip Ray, A-5 Pradip Kumar Banerjee and A-6 Nitya Nand Gautam and also the offence of criminal breach of trust by public servant by A-4 Dilip Ray, so I accordingly hold them guilty of the offences u/s 120-B IPC, 120-B/409/420 IPC and Section 13 (1) (c) and 13 (1) (d) P.C. Act, 1988 and convict them thereunder beside
also convicting them for the substantive offences as already discussed in the earlier part of the judgment.”
The Sentence in this case is expected on 14th October and All the accused in the case have been summoned to the special court of Delhi for verdict.
