Coalscam: Ex-Jharkhand CM Koda, former coal secy get 3 yr jail

Agencies
December 16, 2017

New Delhi, Dec 16: Former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda and ex-coal secretary H C Gupta were today sentenced to three years imprisonment by a special court here in a case of coal block allocation scam.

Besides the jail term, the special court also imposed a fine of Rs 25 lakh on Koda and Rs one lakh on Gupta.

Former Jharkhand chief secretary A K Basu and Vijay Joshi, a close aide of the then chief minister, were also awarded jail term of three years for indulging in corrupt practices and hatching criminal conspiracy in allocation of Rajhara North coal block in Jharkhand to a Kolkata-based private company, Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Ltd (VISUL).

Special judge Bharat Parashar convicted the private firm and imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh on it.

The convicts including Koda, however, were granted statutory bail for a period of two months to enable them to file appeals in the Delhi High Court challenging the conviction and the jail term.

The convicts were tried for offences under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating) and 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servants) of the IPC and under provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.

The CBI had said that the firm had applied for allocation of Rajhara North coal block on January 8, 2007.

It had said although the Jharkhand government and steel ministry did not recommend VISUL's case for coal block allocation, the 36th Screening Committee recommended the block to the accused firm.

The CBI had said that Gupta, who was chairman of the screening committee, had concealed facts from the then prime minister Manmohan Singh, who at that time headed the Coal Ministry too, that Jharkhand had not recommended VISUL for allocation of a coal block.

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Agencies
June 28,2020

New Delhi, Jun 28: With 19,906 new cases, highest single-day spike so far, India's COVID-19 count touched 5,28,859 including 2,03,051 active cases, 3,09,713 cured/discharged/migrated, according to the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.

410 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours and the cumulative toll reached 16,095 deaths.

Coronavirus cases in Maharashtra have climbed to 1,59,133 while Delhi's tally stands at 80,188.

2,31,095 samples were tested yesterday and the total number of samples tested up to 27 June is 82,27,802, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

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Agencies
February 5,2020

New Delhi, Feb 5: Delhi High Court on Wednesday stated that that death warrant of all convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case should be executed together.

The Delhi prison rules do not state whether when the mercy petition of one convict is pending, the execution of the other convicts can take place and from the trial court to Supreme Court all convicts have been held by a common order and a common judgment, Justice Suresh Kumar Kait observed while passing the order.

High Court dismissed the Central government and Tihar Jail authorities plea challenging the Patiala House court's order, which stayed the execution of the four convicts in the case. It also observed that the convicts indulged in a heinous offence of a bone-chilling rape and murder of a girl and that criminal appeals by all convicts were dismissed by the courts.

Moreover, the court observed that the review petitions were filed after long wait and convicts are taking shelter of Article 21 which is available to them till their last breath.

A single-judge bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait had on Sunday kept the order reserved in the matter after special hearing of two days.

Earlier, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing on behalf of the Centre, alleged that the convicts were deliberately delaying the execution, adding that any delay in death sentence will have a dehumanising effect on the convicts.

A Delhi court last week stayed till further orders the execution of the four convicts -- Akshay Thakur, Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, and Vinay Sharma -- which was earlier scheduled to take place on February 1.

The case pertains to the gang-rape and brutal murder of a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012, by six people, including a juvenile, in Delhi. The woman had died at a Singapore hospital a few days later.

One of the five adults accused, Ram Singh, had allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail during the trial of the case.

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Agencies
August 2,2020

New Delhi, Aug 2: India's COVID-19 tally crossed the 17 lakh mark with 54,736 positive cases and 853 deaths reported in the last 24 hours.

"The total COVID-19 cases stand at 17,50,724 including 5,67,730 active cases, 11,45,630 cured/discharged/migrated and 37,364 deaths," said the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry.

As per the data provided by the Health Ministry, Maharashtra -- the worst affected state from the infection -- has a total of 1,49,214 active cases and 15,316 deaths. A total of 4,31,719 coronavirus cases have been recorded in the state up to Saturday, as per the state health department.

Tamil Nadu has a total of 60,580 active cases and 4,034 deaths.

In Delhi, the total cases rose to 1,36,716, including 1,22,131 recovered/discharged/migrated cases and 3,989 deaths. There are 10,596 active cases in the national capital.

The total number of COVID-19 samples tested up to August 1 is 1,98,21,831 including 4,63,172 samples tested yesterday, said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Sunday.

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