A special court on Wednesday summoned Congress Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda and three others, including a Nagpur-based private firm in coal block allocation case.
The Central Bureau of Investigation had chargesheeted them in the case. The court on Wednesday took cognisance and summoned them.
Special CBI Judge Madhu Jain summoned Darda, his son Devendra Darda, Nagpur-based AMR Iron and Steel Pvt Ltd and its director Manoj Jayaswal. The court has fixed May 23 as the next date of hearing.
The CBI had on March 27 chargesheeted the accused.
They were chargesheeted for the offences under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating) of the IPC and under the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.
During the proceedings, the CBI sought more time to file reply on the plea filed by AMR Iron and Steel Pvt Ltd seeking its monitoring of the ongoing CBI probe in the case.
The Central Bureau of Investigation informed the court that they had done correction in the list of documents filed along with the charge sheet.
In its plea filed through advocate Vijay Aggarwal, AMR Iron and Steel Pvt Ltd had claimed that CBI has not probed the matter properly and the charge sheet was filed on the basis of “biased investigation”.
Meanwhile, an NGO told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that a senior CBI officer involved in the Coalgate probe must be recused on the ground of conflict of interest, and also alleged that the agency’s counsel had advised it to desist from filing charge sheets after being privy to status reports.
A bench headed by Chief Justice R.M. Lodha, which will hear the matter on Thursday, asked the CBI’s counsel to take instruction on CBI joint-director O.P. Galhotra, who was related to the family of Congress MP Naveen Jindal, an accused in the coal block allocation scam. “You seek instruction on Galhotra and we will see tomorrow,” the bench, also comprising justices M.B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph said while disagreeing with CBI that asking any officer to recuse from the probe would be a “stigma” on him. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO, Common Cause, alleged that senior advocate and CBI’s counsel Amarender Sharan, who is privy to probe reports, has been advising the agency not to file chargesheets.