JSPL shares fall 5 per cent as court summons Naveen Jindal in coal scam

Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL) fell by nearly 5 per cent on Thursday after its Chairman Naveen Jindal and 14 others were summoned by a special court in the coal blocks allocation scam case.

Later, recovering some of the lost ground, the shares of the company were trading at Rs 133.10 apiece, down by 1.55 per cent at 1:46 pm.             

On the National Stock Exchnage (NSE), it was down by 1.33 per cent at Rs 133.05 per share at the same time.

Industrialist Naveen Jindal and 14 others were on Wednesday summoned as accused in the coal blocks allocation scam case by a special court which observed that Jindal, who is also a Congress leader, had prima facie manipulated entire government machinery to procure undue allotment in Jharkhand.

Besides Jindal, the court also summoned former Minister of State (MoS) for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao, ex-Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, ex-Coal Secretary Harish Chandra Gupta and others, including five companies, asking them to appear before it on May 22 after taking cognisance of CBI's charge sheet filed against them.

Meanwhile, JSPL has denied all charges against its Chairman. In a statement the company said: "We deny all allegations made against our company and its management. We will be availing of appropriate remedy in accordance with law. We have full faith in our judiciary and are confident to come out clean during the process. It said the allocation was made to the company on merits and all along the course of the investigation the company and its officials have fully cooperated with the authorities".