Delhi Court Discharges Ex-Coal Secretary HC Gupta, KS Kropha In Coal Block Case

Last Updated:November 03, 2025, 16:06 IST

A Delhi court discharged HC Gupta, KS Kropha, and other in the Fatehpur East Coal Block case, citing lack of evidence for conspiracy or forgery.

The woman also challenged the family’s court finding of cruelty inflicted by her on her husband. (Representational)

A Delhi court recently exonerated the former coal secretary HC Gupta and ex-civil servant KS Kropha, and three others in a coal scam case.

Special Judge (PC Act) Dheeraj Mor of the Rouse Avenue Court held that the key ingredients of criminal conspiracy, cheating, and forgery were not established against Gupta, Kropha, and RKM Powergen Private Limited officials Dr. Andal Arumugam and T.M. Singaravel, to whom the Fatehpur East Coal Block in Chhattisgarh had been allocated.

While discharging the accused, the Court ordered, “Considering the above detailed discussion, all the five accused persons namely (i) M/s R.K.M. Powergen Pvt. Ltd.; (ii) Smt. Dr. Andal Arumugam; (iii) Sh. T.M. Singaravel; (iv) Sh. Harish Chandra Gupta; and (v) Sh. Kuljeet Singh Kropha (accused nos.1 to 5 respectively) are entitled to be discharged for the respective offences alleged against them in the charge- sheet. Accordingly, they all are ordered to be discharged."

As a result, the case was closed at the stage of framing of charges and did not proceed to trial, the Bar and Bench reported.

Senior Advocate Abhimanyu Bhandari and advocate Aarav Pandit appeared for the directors of RKM Powergen. Advocates Rahul Tyagi and Mathew M Philip represented HC Gupta and KS Kropha. Deputy Legal Advisor NP Srivastava represented the CBI.

The prosecution started by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against RKM Powergen Private Limited, its directors and senior Ministry of Coal officials (Gupta and Kropha), charging them under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act for alleged misrepresentations, use of forged documents and irregularities in the coal block allocation process.

According to the allegations, RKM Powergen applied for the coal block in 2006 by overstating its net worth and submitting forged land consent letters along with other fabricated documents. It was further claimed that officials in the Ministry of Coal ignored these discrepancies, enabling the company to secure the allocation.

Initially, the CBI filed a closure report in 2017, concluding that RKM Powergen, as a special purpose vehicle with legitimate principal promoters was entitled to claim their consolidated net worth and thus was eligible for the coal block allocation.

However, the then Special Judge found this investigation inadequate and directed further scrutiny.

Supplementary investigation found discrepancies in RKM Powergen’s applications.

After examining the record, the Court noted that there were no allegations suggesting any meeting of minds between the accused public officials and the private individuals to carry out the alleged offence.

“Further, there are no allegations of any quid pro quo or acquiring any undue advantage by the accused public servants for the recommendation made by the Screening Committee for allocation of Fatehpur East Coal Block in favour of accused no.1 company. There is no evidence that the accused public servants were aware of any alleged misrepresentation made by accused no.1 company to the Screening Committee/Ministry of Coal at the relevant time or it used any forged document as genuine," the Court added.

Therefore, it discharged all the accused persons in the case.

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