Cops told to file case against Mideast brass

The beleaguered Mideast Integrated Steel Ltd (MISL), a Mesco group company, has suffered yet another setback with the sub-divisional judicial magistrate here directing police to register a case on charges of fraud and criminal misappropriation against the company's chairman J K Singh, managing director Rita Singh, senior vice-president V K Singh and in-charge officer Col Sudhansu Sekhar Nayak.

MISL was setting up a one million tonne steel plant at Duburi in Jajpur district. The work on the project had started in mid 90s. However, the project is still lying unfinished after the company abandoned its construction in 2000 owing to financial crunch.

The company, at present, is facing several investigations including those by CBI, on charges of financial mismanagement, fund misappropriation and fraud while IDBI and few other financial institutions have filed cases before DRT in Kolkata for recovery of their loans.

The Orissa government had also advanced Rs 17 crore loan to MISL from its Steel Bond kitty. With the project proving to be a non-starter, the dues receivable by the government has mounted to over Rs 34 crore. CBI is investigating under what circumstances, the state government had granted loans to the company.

In this backdrop, the latest case has made the company's cup of woes full. In a petitions before the SDJM, Bhubaneswar, two former employees of the company have leveled charges of fraudulent practices and criminal misappropriation against the company.

Hearing the case, SP Nayak, SDJM, Bhubaneswar, observed ,"I feel it appropriate in the interest of justice that there should be an investigation by the police with regard to the allegations leveled. The IIC, airfield police station, is directed under section 156(3) of CrPC to register a case and investigate into the allegations".

The two petitioners, Khetrabasi Mishra and Debasis Mishra, both engineers, had earlier filed an FIR against the company management with the Airfield police station, here on March 19,2004, but the police refused to register a case. The court has directed the IIC, Airfield police station to report compliance of his order within a week.

The petition alleged that Rita Singh and V K Singh had induced the complainants on April 16, 1998 to invest Rs 2 lakh in the Utkal Steel Bonds floated to raise capital for setting up a steel plant at Duburi under MISL in order to be eligible for preferential treatment and get secured jobs as diploma engineers in MISL.

The investment entailed 18 per cent interest payable bi-annually by the company from the date of allotment of debentures.

However, till date the company has not paid any interest on the amount despite being approached repeatedly, it alleged and pointed out that after the company closed down on October 21, 2000, the petitioners lost their jobs.

The five accused have been charged under several sections including 294 (using obscene language), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 418 (cheating), 420 (fraud) and 506 (criminal intimidation).