A Delhi court has dropped all charges against former coal secretary HC Gupta, ex-civil servant KS Kropha, and three others accused in the RKM Powergen coal allocation case, declaring that no ingredients of conspiracy, cheating, or forgery were established.
The decision, handed down by Special Judge Dheeraj Mor of the Rouse Avenue Courts, brings an end to a long-running case tied to the Fatehpur East Coal Block in Chhattisgarh. The court held that the evidence on record did not suggest any criminal intent or coordinated wrongdoing among the accused.
“All five accused — RKM Powergen Pvt. Ltd., Dr. Andal Arumugam, T.M. Singaravel, H.C. Gupta, and K.S. Kropha — stand discharged from all offences alleged in the charge sheet,” the judge stated, effectively shutting the case before it could reach trial.
The Central Bureau of Investigation had accused the private company and senior officials of the Ministry of Coal of misrepresentations and use of forged documents during the allocation process. Investigators alleged that RKM Powergen exaggerated its financial capacity and used fake consent letters for land acquisition, while ministry officials allegedly overlooked these irregularities.
However, the court noted that the prosecution failed to demonstrate any “meeting of minds” or quid pro quo between the officials and the company. “There is no evidence that the public servants were aware of any misrepresentation or that they derived any undue benefit from the recommendation made by the Screening Committee,” the order stated.
The case has seen multiple turns — the CBI initially sought closure in 2017, concluding that RKM Powergen was entitled to consider the consolidated net worth of its promoters. But a special court demanded further investigation, leading to supplementary findings that also failed to show criminal complicity.
With this ruling, the court has effectively ended one more chapter in the series of coal allocation cases that once dominated the country’s corruption landscape.
Senior lawyers appeared on both sides — Abhimanyu Bhandari and Aarav Pandit represented RKM Powergen’s directors, while Rahul Tyagi and Mathew M Philip appeared for Gupta and Kropha. The CBI was represented by Deputy Legal Advisor N.P. Srivastava.
