Former union minister Dilip Ray was sentenced today to three years in prison for his role in alleged irregularities in the allocation of a Jharkhand coal block in 1999.
In addition to Dilip Ray, the IWC special court also handed three years in prison to two people who were also recently convicted for their role in the case.
Dilip Ray, a former minister of state (coal) in the government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was, earlier this month, convicted under various sections, including for criminal conspiracy, varying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, for his role in the scam. .
The court then convened another hearing on October 14, when final arguments from the IWC and the convicts were heard. The special judge Bharat Parashar had then reserved the order for today (October 26).
During the hearing, the CBI had requested life imprisonment for the former Union minister and other convicts, arguing that white-collar crimes are on the rise and the maximum punishment was required to send a message to society.
The CBI, represented by prosecutors VK Sharma and AP Singh, had also requested life imprisonment for two senior Coal Ministry officials at the time, Pradip Kumar Banerjee and Nitya Nand Gautam, and the director of Castron Technologies Ltd (CTL). Mahendra Kumar Agarwalla.
The convicts had urged the court to adopt a lenient attitude in light of their old age and that they had never been convicted before.
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