CBI court grants bail to ex-Union Minister Dilip Ray convicted in coal scam case

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Monday (October 26) granted bail to former Union Minister Dilip Ray and other individuals, convicted in a Jharkhand coal scam case, on a bail bond of Rs 1 lakh each. The court also granted them time till November 25 to appeal in the High Court.

Ray was Minister of State (coal) in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

Earlier in the day, the CBI court sentenced Ray to 3 years imprisonment in a coal scam case pertaining to the alleged irregularities in the allocation of a Jharkhand coal block in 1999. Special Judge Bharat Prashar, while pronouncing sentence also imposed fine of the sum of Rs 10 lakhs each against all convicted individuals.

Special Judge Bharat Parashar also awarded three years term each to two senior officials of the Ministry of Coal at that time — Pradip Kumar Banerjee and Nitya Nand Gautam — and Castron Technologies Limited’s Director Mahendra Kumar Agarwalla. The CBI had earlier urged the court to award life imprisonment to Ray and other convicts to send a message to the society as white-collar crimes were on the rise. The court further imposed Rs 60 lakh on CLT.