The IAS Officers Association has convened a meeting on Sunday to "deliberate the future course of action". A special CBI court convicted former Coal Secretary H C Gupta (Retd IAS:1971) and two other senior IAS officers on Friday for corruption in the allocation of a coal block in West Bengal. Gupta was convicted of all the charges made against him at the Special CBI Court. Indeed, instead of contesting, Gupta accepted all the charges. Months ago, he told the court he didn't have the resources to fight the cases filed against him, and, therefore, he would prefer to be jailed.

 

The two other bureaucrats convicted are K S Kropha (Retd IAS:1982:AM) and Kailsh Chand Samria (IAS:1993:AM) then Joint Secretary and Director, respectively, in the Ministry of Coal. Kropha retired as Meghalaya Chief Secretary whereas Samaria is currently Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Minority Affairs.

 

"Conviction of honest IAS officers in the coal scam is most unfortunate. A black letter day for bureaucracy — convicting officers for bonafide decisions in the interest of administration.  We stand by the officers in this time of distress," the IAS officers association said.

 

The association secretary, Abhishek Chandra (IAS:2003:TR) said all the three officers have 'impeccable credentials' and they deserve to be backed by the association. He added that "We will do whatever we can under the ambit of law,".