New Delhi, October 26

A Delhi court today awarded three-year jail term to former Union Minister Dilip Ray in a coal scam case pertaining to irregularities in the allocation of a Jharkhand block in 1999, saying white collar crimes were “more dangerous” than ordinary ones because of the “damages inflicted on public morale”.

Besides Ray, the 68-year-old former Minister of State (Coal) in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, the court awarded three-year jail term to two senior officials in the ministry then — Pradip Kumar Banerjee and Nitya Nand Gautam, both aged around 80.

The court also awarded three-year jail term to Castron Technologies Ltd (CTL) director Mahendra Kumar Agarwal (75). — PTI