Kropha, 2 others get 3-year term, granted bail

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Wednesday sentenced former coal secretary H C Gupta, and former bureaucrats — K S Kropha and K C Samria — to three-year imprisonment each in a coal block allocation scam which happened during the previous UPA regime at the Centre.
All the three government servants were also fined Rs 50,000 each.
Awarding the punishment to the three bureaucrats, the court said: “Such white collar crimes are in fact more dangerous to the society than ordinary crimes, firstly, because the financial losses are much higher, and, secondly because of the damages inflicted on public morale.
“The average loss from ordinary crimes such as burglaries, robberies and larcenies etc. may run into few thousand rupees only but the loss which the ‘white collar crimes’ may run not only in lakhs but in crores of rupees.”
The government servants were later granted statutory bail to file appeals against the judgement before the superior court as the jail term was three years.
The court, however, said that none of the three bureaucrats deserve to be given the benefit of probation. (PTI)