New Delhi/Bhubaneswar, Apr 18: In connection to the alleged involvement in the coal block allocation case as per the national media reports BJP Rourkela MLA and ex-Coal minister Dilip Ray is scheduled to face a trial on Apr 26 as fixed by the Special CBI court in order to formulate the charges that have been put against Ray. Along with Ray, charges will also be framed against all the others involved in the case. They are Pradip Ku Banerjee who is an ex-Additional Secretary and Nitya Nand Gautam who is an ex-former advisor (projects) in the Ministry of Coal.
Notably, it was alleged that there have been in the year 1999 irregularities in the allocation of Brahmadiha coal block in Giridhi in Jharkhand to a coal company named Castron Technologies Ltd.
Ray and others have been charged under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating) and 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act for abusing of position by a public official. The chargesheet was lodged by the CBI in Dec 2015 following which the court was made aware of the same on Jan 15, 2016 under Justice Parashar who had come to notice that the allocation decisions initiated by Ray and others were taken without taking into consideration public interest. The court also held Castron Technologies for illegally accepting the allocated coal block thus entering into a criminal plan with Ray and others.
