New Delhi: In a major development, a special judge, Arun Bhardwaj, has acquitted AES Chhattisgarh Energy Private Limited (AES Chhattisgarh) and its director, Sanjeev Aggarwal, in the coal block allocation case. The case framed around them was related to alleged and intentional misrepresentation and concealment of facts during the coal bloc allocation. The special court of Arun Bhardwaj found that the prosecution had failed to prove its case as the evidence presented by them highlighted huge differences in corporate practices between the countries of the US and India.
Special Judge Arun Bhardwaj granted the relief to AES Chhattisgarh Energy Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of AES Corp. Delaware (United States), and the subsidiary company’s director, Sanjay Aggarwal, in the case involving allocation of Sayang coal block in the state on November 6, 2007.
The CBI had lodged an FIR claiming AES Chhattisgarh had misrepresented the fact that it was subsidiary of AES Corp USA, although on the day of filing the application, it was not a subsidiary of the American company.
The court, however, accepted the submissions made by Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa, who presented various correspondences of AES Corp. USA, demonstrating that it had the control of AES Chhattisgarh Energy Pvt. Ltd. at the time of application.
The judge, who had on September 21, 2022 cancelled Aggarwal’s bail, noting that he “prima facie” violated the “fundamental condition of bail” by trying to influence a witness, said Sections 420 (cheating) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC were not made out against the two accused. Aggarwal was, however, later granted bail.
The court had in May 2017 taken cognisance of the offence under Section 120-B and 420 of IPC against AES Chhattisgarh Energy Pvt. Ltd. and Agarwal.
During the final arguments, Pahwa claimed there was “no complainant or victim” in the present case as the Ministry of Coal had not lodged any complaint about having been cheated by the accused, and the CBI filed the case on its own.
(With inputs from agencies)
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