NEW DELHI: The CBI on Saturday he carried out a bulk search operation at 45 locations in four states after filing a case against suspected coal thief Anup Manjhi, who is suspected of colluding with two general managers and three members of Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL) security personnel, authorities said.
The searches spread across West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, they said.
The CBI registered the case on Friday against Manjhi, ECL General Managers Amit Kumar Dhar (from then Kunustoria area now Pandaveswar area) and Jayesh Chandra Rai (Kajor area) as well as ECL security chief Tanmay Das, inspector of Area Security, Kunustoria Dhananjay Rai and SSI, and Area Security Officer Kajor Debashish Mukherjee.
Defendant Anup Manjhi alias Lala is alleged to be involved in illegal mining and stealing coal from ECL’s leased mines in the Kunustoria and Kajora areas, they said.
The CBI acted on the basis of information from “reliable sources” indicating the illegal excavation and theft of coal in the ECL lease area in “collusion” with ECL, CISF and Railroad officials.
The ECL’s surveillance department and its Task Force had also noticed illegal mining from May 2020 onwards with the help of large digging machines and transport vehicles that were seized by the team.
“Several cases of the installation of illegal weighbridges in the form of concrete were also detected, confirming the illegal extraction and transportation of coal from ECL areas in a large-scale organized manner.
“The source further reveals that illegal mining is taking place in the ECL lease area behind the Topsi village in the Kunustoria area and in the Lachhipur village in the Kajora area by the coal mafias in active collusion with the ECL and CISF officials “alleged the CBI in its FIR.
Departmental raids on August 7, 2020 led to the recovery of more than nine tons of stolen coal from the railway siding in the Pandaveswar area. Similar recoveries were made from other locations as well.
“This illegal activity is known to be being carried out on railroad sidings by criminals with the active collusion of unknown railway officials,” the agency alleged.
The CBI has alleged that Anup Manjhi, alias Lala, is the kingpin of most of the coal theft in the area that arises from illegal mining.
The Standard Operating Procedure for CIL’s Illegal Mining and Coal Theft Action Plan dated August 8, 2020, issued one day after the raids by ECL teams, states that “the primary role of all raids and The actions to be taken are by the Area Security Officer, Area Security Manager, Area Authorities under the respective ECL Security Chief and under the Area General Managers “.
It appears that illegal coal mining in ECL’s leasing area is happening alongside the theft of coal from railroad sidings in an organized manner, the CBI said.
It alleged that the accused officials and the ECL and CISF security officers, in collusion with unidentified Railways officials, allowed Anup Maji alias Lala to misappropriate the national property that had been entrusted to them, committing a crime of abuse trustworthy.
Meanwhile, ECL sources said a company security official died on Saturday after “falling ill” during a CBI search operation of his residence.
Dhananjay Roy, the security inspector for the state-owned company in the Kunustoria area in West Bengal’s Pashchim Bardhaman district, fell ill while the search operation was underway, they said.
He was rushed to a hospital where he died, sources said.
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