A special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday found Rathi Steel and Power Ltd and its three promoters guilty of criminal conspiracy and cheating in connection with the coal block allocation scam case, reported The Times of India. According to the bench, the Delhi-based company "deceived" the central government and made "false" representations before then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to get the contract.

The particular conviction is related to the Kesla North coal block in Chhattisgarh that was allocated to the company. Special CBI judge Bharat Parashar said, "The false representation thus continued to hold ground even when the file containing recommendation of screening committee went to the PM [Manmohan Singh] as minister-in-charge, coal, GoI for final approval and thus it was primarily the government which was deceived into making allotment of a coal block in favour of RSPL while believing all such representation to be true, which in fact were not."

After the verdict, the three accused were taken into custody. In March 2015, the court had framed charges against the company and three of its top officials – Managing Director Pradeep Rathi, Chief Executive Officer Udit Rathi and AGM Kushal Aggarwal. The charges were framed under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code.