New Delhi, Feb 26 (IANS): A court here on Friday granted bail to former union minister Dilip Ray and three others in a coal block allocation case allegedly involving Castron Technologies Ltd.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge Bharat Parashar granted bail to Ray, who was minister of state for coal in the then NDA government in 1999, along with then additional secretary (Ministry of Coal) Pradip Kumar Banerjee, then advisor (projects) in the coal ministry Nitya Nand Gautam, and company Castron Technologies' director Mahendra Kumar Agarwalla.

The four were asked to furnish a personal bond of Rs.1 Lakh and a surety of like amount.

The court has listed April 1 for the further hearing of the matter.

The accused had appeared before the court in pursuance of January 18 summons issued against them.

The company Castron Technologies and firm Castron Mining were also accused in the case, and were represented by authorised representative.

Ray is the first minister of the NDA government who has been summoned as an accused in a coal block allocation case.

The court had summoned the six after taking cognisance of the charge sheet.

The case pertains to alleged irregularities in allocation of Brahmadiha coal block in Giridih district of Jharkhand to Castron Technologies Ltd. in 1999.

The accused were booked under various sections dealing with criminal conspiracy, cheating, and criminal breach of trust under the Indian Penal Code and relevant provisions of Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act.