New Delhi, July 14: A special court ordered framing of additional charges against Congress MP Naveen Jindal on abetment to bribery on Friday in a case related to an allotment of a coal block in Jharkhand. The court ordered the framing of charges after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a prosecution complaint for money laundering against Jindal and other accused. The case was also investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)

Special Judge Bharat Parashar said in his order that the charge will be formally framed on August 16. The charges will also be framed under Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) against then Jindal Steel adviser Anand Goel; Nihar Stocks Ltd. director B.S.N. Suryanarayan; and Mumbai’s Essar Power Ltd executive vice-chairman Sushil Kumar Maroo.

The coal scam case was related to the allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand. In its complaint, the ED alleged JSPL, along with former Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda, former Coal Secretary H C Gupta and others of influencing the screening committee to allot the coal block. In April 2016, the court had ordered framing of charges against Jindal, former MoS (Coal) Dasari Narayan Rao (since dead), Koda, Gupta and others.

The ED filed complaint on the same day when Jindal and the Zee Group announced a settlement over an alleged extortion case involving the coal block allocation. In the extortion case filed in 2012, the Jindal-owned Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL) on July 13 asked the Deputy Commissioner of the Delhi Police Crime Branch, to “close the investigation” and “file a closure report” against the editorial heads of Zee News and Zee Business TV channels. The Jindal group said that the matter had been solved and the allegations against the Zee groups were levelled due to some confusion.

Zee Group owner Subhash Chandra expressed happiness over Jindal group’s decision. Chandra tweeted: “I am happy that JSPL and Naveen Jindal have withdrawn FIR alleging extortion with Delhi Police against Zee and its editors, similarly Zee has agreed to withdraw all complaints and cases against JSPL and Naveen Jindal. I wish Naveen very best in life.”

The Congress MP also tweeted, “We have resolved all differences that took place because of miscommunication. Happy to leave all behind. Thankyou @subhashchandra ji for your good wishes. Let there be #Peace. @ZeeNews @sudhirchaudhary.”

An FIR was registered on JSPL’s complaint alleging that Sudheer Choudhary of Zee News and Sameer Aluhwalia of Zee Business demanded Rs 100 crore in the form of advertisements and in return no news report would be filed in connection to the coal block allocation case.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 14, 2018 05:31 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).