The CBI court on Monday granted bail to former Union Minister Dilip Ray and other individuals, convicted in a Jharkhand coal scam case, on a bail bond of Rs 1 lakh each.
The court also granted them time till November 25 to appeal in the High Court.
A Delhi court in the day awarded 3-year jail term to former Union minister Dilip Ray in a coal scam case of irregularities in the allocation of a Jharkhand block in 1999, saying white-collar crimes are “more dangerous” than ordinary ones because of the “damages inflicted on public morale”.
Besides Ray, the 68-year old former minister of state (coal) in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, Special Judge Bharat Parashar also awarded 3-year jail term each to two senior officials of the ministry at that time — Pradip Kumar Banerjee and Nitya Nand Gautam, both about 80-year-old.
The CBI had demanded life imprisonment sentencing to the accused, while the accused’s counsel had requested to be lenient in the sentence citing no criminal record.
In this case, former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda has been proved guilty.
Koda was fined Rs 25 lakh with three years in jail. Similarly, former mining secretary HC Gupta was also jailed for three years and fined Rs 1 lakh.
A Delhi court had earlier this month reserved the order for October 26 after hearing arguments from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as well the convicts.
The court directed the convicts to be present before it physically on that date.
Ray was convicted under various sections including 409 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which pertains to criminal breach of trust by a public servant.