Coal scam: Dilip Ray to face trial

Bhubaneswar: BJP’s Rourkela MLA and former Coal Minister Dilip Ray has landed in trouble, as he will be facing a trial for his alleged involvement in coal block allocation case.

According to national media reports, a special CBI Court has fixed April 26 to frame charges against Ray in the case. Ray was Coal Minister in NDA government.

Besides Ray, the special CBI Court will also frame charges against all the other accused involved in the coal scam.

The case pertains to the alleged irregularities in allocation of Brahmadiha coal block in Jharkhand’s Giridh district to Castron Technologies Limited in 1999.

Ray, along with other accused, will battle charges under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating) and 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, which stands for abusing of position by a public official.

The court had taken cognizance of the case on January 15 last year, after the CBI had filed the chargesheet a month earlier in December 2015.

In his order dated January 15 last year, Judge Parashar had observed that the decisions by Ray and the other accused in 1999 were made “without keeping public interest in mind”.

The court had also made observations on Castron Technologies in that order, stating that the company had “cheated the government by unlawfully obtaining the allocation of the impugned coal block while entering into a criminal conspiracy with the public servants.”