Overview
- The special CBI court at Delhi’s Rouse Avenue, which delivered its verdict Friday, cleared H C Gupta, Vijay and Devendra Darda, Manoj Jayaswal and AMR Iron & Steel of all charges.
- Judge Sunena Sharma found the evidence highly insufficient to prove cheating, criminal conspiracy or corruption, saying the case relied on conjecture rather than concrete proof.
- The ruling says the coal block allocation was a policy exercise by a screening committee working under directions from the PMO, and letters sent by MP Vijay Darda were not considered in the decision.
- The court found no reliable trail for the alleged Rs 24.6 crore routed from the Abhijeet Group to a Darda-linked firm and no link between any payments and the allocation, so no quid pro quo was proved.
- This verdict closes the oldest pending Bander case filed in March 2014 from the CBI’s first chargesheet, while many other coal-allocation prosecutions and money-laundering complaints remain before special courts.