Special CBI court grants bail to Naveen Jindal's adviser & 4 others in Coal scam case

New Delhi: A special court on Thursday granted bail to five accused named by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in its supplementary chargesheet in a coal scam case against Congress leader and industrialist Naveen Jindal and others.

Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar on Thursday granted the relief to the accused - Jindal Steel's adviser Anand Goel, Gurgaon-based Green Infra's Vice-President Siddharth Madra, Nihar Stocks Ltd Director BSN Suryanarayan, Mumbai-based KE International's Chief Financial Officer Rajeev Aggarwal and Mumbai's Essar Power Ltd Executive Vice-Chairman Sushil Kumar Maroo.

The case pertains to allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand. The names of these five persons were revealed by Singhal, a chartered accountant, who was earlier chargesheeted by the CBI as accused in the case.

The court had summoned them also as accused after taking cognisance of the supplementary charge sheet filed by the CBI on March 24. Besides Jindal, the case also involves former Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao and ex-Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda. The court had earlier directed the CBI to expeditiously file its further probe report.

CBI had alleged that Koda had favoured Jindal group firms-Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) and Gagan Sponge Iron Pvt Ltd (GSIPL) in allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand.

All the accused had denied the allegations levelled against them and said there was no evidence to show that there was any conspiracy during the coal block allocation process.