Former coal secretary HC Gupta has been convicted by a special court in Delhi on Friday in a coal scam case. The court also convicted then joint secretary KS Kropha, then director in the coal ministry KC Samaria and others while chartered accountant Amit Goel has been acquitted.
Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar also convicted the Coal Ministry’s then joint secretary KS Kropha and then director KC Samaria besides others. The case relates to alleged irregularities in the allocation of Thesgora-B Rudrapuri coal block in Madhya Pradesh to KSSPL.

The quantum of punishment will be announced on May 22. Besides Gupta, Kropha and Samria, the court also convicted the firm KSSPL and its managing director Pawan Kumar Ahluwalia.
In October last year, the special court had framed charges against the accused observing that former PM Manmohan Singh was kept in the ‘dark’ by Gupta. It had said that prima facie, Gupta violated the law and trust reposed in him on the issue of coal block allocation..
Around eight different chargesheets have been filed against Gupta and proceedings are going on individually. The Supreme Court had recently dismissed his plea seeking joint trial in all these cases.
In a major outreach towards the minority community in two of Maharashtra’s minority-dominated towns, the BJP has fielded a record number of Muslim candidates in Malegaon and Bhiwandi for the upcoming urban local body elections.
In Malegaon, located 280 km north of Mumbai where Muslims constitute 79 per cent of the town’s population, the BJP is contesting on 50 seats in the 84-member civic body. Of these 50 candidates, 30 are Muslims. In Bhiwandi, located 35 km north of Mumbai, Muslims constitute 52 per cent of the city’s 7 lakh population as per the 2011 census. The BJP is contesting 57 of the 90 seats. It has fielded 18 Muslim candidates in the city.
“For me, personally, I believe the BJP has won even before the elections as we have been able to reach out to our brethren. The BJP has for long been unfairly criticised as being anti-Muslim. When the election process was announced, we had over 170-180 Muslims who approached us seeking tickets. This signifies a huge change in mindset and is truly a victory of our democracy,” said Nitin Pophale, member of the BJP’s state working committee, who is handling the elections in the town.
The BJP has never been able to make a mark in the Malegaon Municipal Corporation, which has been dominated by the Congress and the Janata Dal over the years. This is the first time that the BJP has fielded so many Muslim candidates. It had initially decided to contest 77 seats for which it had selected a total of 57 Muslim candidates. However, many of the nominees had to withdraw due to various anomalies.
“Earlier we used to put up two or three of our dedicated Muslim workers in corporation elections from Muslim-dominated areas… As a truly national party, it is time that we spread our wings and reach out to the Muslim community,” Pophale said.