Indian court convicts former chief minister, 3 others in multi-billion-dollar coal scam

NEW DELHI, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- A special court in the Indian capital Wednesday held four people, including a former chief minister of Jharkhand state, guilty in a multi-billion-dollar coal scam case.

This is in fact one of the several cases in the coal mining scandal that rocked the country in 2012 after government auditors pointed out that India had lost 33 billion U.S. dollars as coalfield rights were sold off cheaply, mostly to private firms, between 2004 and 2010.

In the latest case, the court convicted former Jharkhand's chief minister Madhu Koda, two former officials, including former Indian Coal Secretary H.C. Gupta, and another serving civil servant of criminal conspiracy.

The court will pronounce the quantum of punishment Thursday.

In this case, the country's premier probe agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation, has claimed in its chargesheet that the accused colluded to give mining rights of a state-owned coal block in Rajhara North to a private firm in 2007 illegally.

Gupta, who was then the chairman of a screening committee, had concealed facts from his boss, then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who had also been heading the Coal Ministry at the time, the probe agency said.

The court had earlier rejected a plea of Koda to include former Prime Minister Singh as an accused in the case.

In September 2014, India's Supreme Court cancelled almost all of the more than 200 coal mining licences awarded by the government since 1993, saying that they were illegal. Singh's Congress party was in charge when most of the licences were allocated.

India is one of the largest producers of coal in the world. Enditem