Coal Scam Case: Special Court of Jharkhand sentenced four years imprisonment to Ispat company directors Rungta brothers

New Delhi: The Directors of the Jharkhand Ispat Pvt. Ltd., namely, R. C. Rungta and R. S. Rungta are sentenced by the Special Court, today, i.e. on 4th April, to suffer rigorous imprisonment of Four Years period. The said imprisonment is awarded by the Special Court, which has earlier convicted the company and its director in connection with the Coal Block allocation scam, which rocked the UPA- II dispensation.

While awarding the said sentence of imprisonment against the said accused, the Special Court also decided to impose fine of 25 lakh rupees against said Company, which is termed by the court as ‘offending firm’. Moreover, rupees 5 lakh in the form of fine is also imposed on both the directors of the said company, i.e. the Rungta brothers. It was on 28th day of last month, the said Special Court had convicted the company and these Rungta brothers after holding them guilty of cheating the Government for illegally bagging a mining block in the State. However, the Court that time sought to put the matter on the next date so that the issue of sentencing was to be decided.

Thus, today, the Court again took the matter in its hand and heard various arguments from the counsels. The lawyer representing Rungta brothers found pleaded before the Court that these Rungta brothers deserved leniency as the criminal charges against them were of an economic nature, and also such charged as not of any heinous offence.

Moreover, the counsel for Rungtas further sought to maintain that by suffering a 200 crores and plus’s loss, due to its non- extraction of coal from the mine, the company and Rungta brothers have “already punishment”.

The Special Court’s judge- Bharat Parashar deciding the matter of conviction, he observed that these accused persons and entity were found guilty of conspiracy and cheating. And notably the judge found said that “the intention to defraud on the part of accused persons is writ large on the face of record”.

Even after that, the Rungtas found lucky, as they are receiving really minimum punishment, because in India the maximum punishment for cheating could be 7 years of imprisonment in other cases.

Adv. Faim Khalilkhan Pathan

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