Coal scam: Dilip Ray was convicted under various sections including for criminal conspiracy.
Former union minister Dilip Ray was today sentenced to three year imprisonment over his role in the alleged irregularities in the allocation of a Jharkhand coal block in 1999.
Besides Dilip Ray, the Special CBI court also handed three year jail sentence to two individual who were also convicted recently for their role in the scam.
Special Judge Bharat Prashar, while pronouncing sentence, also imposed fine of the sum of Rs 10 lakhs each against all convicted individuals.
Dilip Ray counsel has decided to move bail for him and also appeal against his conviction, according to news agency ANI.
Dilip Ray, former Minister of State (coal) in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, was, earlier this month convicted under various sections including for criminal conspiracy, that varies a maximum punishment of life imprisonment, by the same court.
The CBI had sought life imprisonment for the former Union minister and other convicts, arguing that white collar crimes are on the rise and maximum punishment was required to send a message to the society.
The CBI, represented by public prosecutors V K Sharma and A P Singh, had also sought life sentence for two senior officials of the Ministry of Coal at that time, Pradip Kumar Banerjee and Nitya Nand Gautam, and Castron Technologies Ltd's (CTL) director Mahendra Kumar Agarwalla.
The convicted persons had urged the court to take a lenient view considering their old age and that they have never been convicted earlier.
The case pertains to the allocation of the Brahmadiha coal block in Giridih of Jharkhand to CTL in 1999.
With inputs from agencies