New Delhi: Former Union Minister Dilip Ray was on Monday granted bail soon after a Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Court sentenced him to three years imprisonment in connection with a coal block scam.
According to reports, Ray was granted bail on a surety of Rs one lakh.
Apart from Ray, the two other officials convicted in the case were also granted bail.
Earlier in the day, the court had sentenced Ray and others to three-years imprisonment, following their conviction in a coal scam case pertaining to irregularities in the allocation of a Jharkhand coal block in 1999.
Earlier on October 6, Special Judge Bharat Parashar convicted Ray, former minister of state (coal) in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, for criminal conspiracy and other offences.
Ray was convicted under various sections including 409 of IPC (criminal breach of trust by a public servant), that varies a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
The court also convicted two senior officials of the Ministry of Coal at that time, Pradip Kumar Banerjee and Nitya Nand Gautam, Castron Technologies Ltd (CTL), its director Mahendra Kumar Agarwalla and Castron Mining Ltd (CML).
This is the first conviction in coal scam for the offence, carrying maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
Read: Jharkhand coal scam: Order on Ex-Minister Dilip Ray's sentence on Oct 26
The case pertains to allocation of 105.153 hectares of non-nationalized and abandoned coal mining area in Jharkhand's Giridih district in favour of Castron Technologies Limited by 14th Screening Committee of the Ministry of Coal in 1999.
(With inputs from agencies)
