Ex-chief secy KS Kropha convicted in corruption case

NEW DELHI, July 29: Former Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Coal and former Chief Secretary of Meghalaya Kuljit Singh Kropha was on Friday convicted along with the former Coal Secretary HC Gupta for criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating, and corruption in a coal scam case related to irregularities in allocation of a coal block in Maharashtra.
Special Judge Arun Bhardwaj also convicted Grace Industries Ltd (GIL) and its Director Mukesh Gupta for criminal conspiracy and cheating. The matter is posted for August 4, when the court will hear arguments on the quantum of sentence to be awarded to the convicts.
The convict persons face a maximum of seven-year jail term while the company faces the imposition of the fine.
According to the CBI, between 2005 and 2011, the accused persons hatched a criminal conspiracy and cheated the Ministry and the Government of India by dishonestly and fraudulently inducing the Ministry to allocate Lohara East Coal Block in favour of GIL. This was based on false information about net worth, capacity, equipment, and status of procurement and installation of the plant.