Delhi court discharges ex-MoS in coal block case

New Delhi, July 23 (IANS) : A Delhi Court on Tuesday discharged former MoS Coal Santosh Bagrodia and one more accursed in Bander coal block case.Special judge Bharat Parashar while discharging ex-MoS Bagrodia and Section Officer L.S. Janoti said: "As no other role apart from the aforesaid proceedings has been assigned to the accused... I hereby discharge them for the offence of criminal misconduct."The two had been discharged of their alleged offences under section 13 (i) d of Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act and Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code.The court, however, framed charges of cheating, criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust against five other accused.The five accused against whom charges were framed included ex-MP Vijay Darda, ex-coal secretary H.C. Gupta and AMR Ltd.The case pertains to alleged corruption in the allocation of Bander coal block in Maharashtra to AMR Iron and Steel Company Ltd.
--IANS anb/prs