NEW DELHI: Former coal secretary HC Gupta was sentenced to a two-year prison term in a coal scam case. A special court in New Delhi awarded the prison term to Gupta, along with senior government officials KS Kropha and KC Samaria. 
Granted bail on the same day, all the three convicts can challenge their sentence in the High Court.
Apart from the prison term, Special CBI Judge Bharat Parasher slapped a penalty of Rs one lakh on each convicts. He also fined Kamal Sponge Steel and Power Ltd (KSPPL), private company, of Rs one crore.

The court awarded Pawan Kumar Ahluwalia, managing director of the company, a three-year prison term and imposed a fine of Rs 30 lakh on him.
The government officials were convicted by the special court on Friday for their involvement in the coal scam case for discrepancies in coal block allocation of Thesgora-B Rudrapuri in Madhya Pradesh, favouring a private company.
Gupta and the other officials were charged under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the IPC. The other allegations levelled against them were abuse of power, gaining monetary leverage regardless of public interest as well as criminal conspiracy. The charge of criminal breach of trust by a government official against Gupta, however, was later dropped by the court.
The CBI had chargesheeted KSPPL with false testaments of their qualifications while applying for the allotment. This was endorsed by several public servants connected with coal allocation. The CBI has held that KSPPL’s application itself was not complete and should have been cancelled in the first place.