The Madhu Koda Coal Block Allocation Case

“Captive coal blocks will be allocated to companies on merit, to those with genuine end-use projects, under the government's screening committee process.”

— Government of Jharkhand and the Union Ministry of Coal, under the coal block allocation regime then in force, State and central authorities responsible for screening and allocating captive coal blocks to private companies · 1 January 2008

Between 2006 and 2009, as an independent MLA who became Jharkhand's chief minister, Madhu Koda's government was involved in recommending and allocating coal blocks, including the Rajhara North block, to private companies without the transparent, competitive screening the policy required.

Coal block allocations decided by an inter-ministerial screening committee on documented, merit-based criteria, free of bribery or personal enrichment of the officials involved.

Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act allocation framework and the government's own screening-committee guidelines for captive coal blocks.

In force from 1 January 2008

The CBI's investigation, part of the wider coal block allocation scam probe ordered by the Supreme Court, found that as chief minister Madhu Koda, along with then coal secretary H.C. Gupta, then Jharkhand chief secretary A.K. Basu and Koda aide Vijay Joshi, engineered the allocation of the Rajhara North coal block to Kolkata-based Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Ltd (VISUL) in exchange for illegal gratification, bypassing merit-based screening. On 16 December 2017, a special CBI court in Delhi convicted Koda, Gupta, Basu and Joshi of criminal conspiracy and corruption, sentencing each to three years' imprisonment; Koda was additionally fined Rs 25 lakh and VISUL was fined Rs 50 lakh as a company. All four were granted statutory bail to pursue appeals in the Delhi High Court, where the case is under appeal as of the most recent reporting available.

As of 1 January 2018

Figures here are the court-imposed fines in this specific case, not an estimate of the underlying bribe amount or of the Comptroller and Auditor General's much larger notional 'presumptive loss' estimate for the coal scam as a whole, which this investigation does not treat as a settled figure.

1. 1 Jan 2008Announcement
   Rajhara North coal block allocated

   The block was allocated to VISUL during Madhu Koda's tenure as Jharkhand chief minister.

2. 1 Aug 2012Status
   CAG report on coal block allocations

   The Comptroller and Auditor General's report on coal block allocations nationwide triggered wider public and judicial scrutiny of allocations including Koda's.

3. 1 Sept 2012Status
   CBI registers case

   The CBI registered a case against Koda and others over the Rajhara North allocation as part of its Supreme Court-monitored coal scam investigations.

4. 24 Sept 2014Milestone
   Supreme Court cancels coal block allocations nationwide

   The Supreme Court cancelled 214 of 218 coal blocks allocated since 1993, including allocations found to be arbitrary or improper, as part of the broader coal scam litigation.

5. 16 Dec 2017Status
   Special court convicts Koda and three others

   A special CBI court convicted Madhu Koda, H.C. Gupta, A.K. Basu and Vijay Joshi of corruption and criminal conspiracy, sentencing each to three years in prison.

Madhu Koda and three co-accused were convicted by a special CBI court in December 2017 and sentenced to three years' imprisonment each. They were granted statutory bail pending appeal to the Delhi High Court.

• The outcome of the Delhi High Court appeal against the December 2017 conviction was not confirmed in sources reviewed for this entry.
• This entry covers only the Rajhara North block case; Madhu Koda faced separate cases (including a disproportionate assets case) not detailed here.
• The precise monetary bribe amount received by Koda in the Rajhara North allocation, as distinct from the court-imposed fine, was not conclusively established across sources reviewed.