A big breather came for Essar in Chhattisgarh as a court of law today granted bail to its General Manager (GM) who was arrested in connection with alleged payouts of protection money by the company to Naxalites.
The Essar group has a major business operation in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district—country’s one of the worst Naxal-infested pockets. The company supplies high iron ore from its 8 million tonne per annum (mtpa) iron ore beneficiation plant near Kirandul to the pellet plant in Visakhapatnam.
The iron ore slurry is pumped through a 267 km pipeline (the second longest in the world) to the pellet plant.
The company came under the scanner when police arrested one B K Lala on September 9 last year with a cash of Rs 15 lakh that he was allegedly transferring to Naxalites. In his statement to the police, Lala—who worked as contractor in Essar—said that he was transferring the cash on behalf of Essar as protection money.
The Essar group categorically denied having paid any protection money to the Naxalites, who had damaged the pipeline several times since it was commissioned in 2006.
Based on Lala’s statement, police on September 27 arrested Essar’s General Manager DVCS Verma. He was posted in Kirandul, heading Essar’s operations in the state.
“The session court today granted bail to DVCS Verma on the condition that he should furnish two sureties each of Rs 2 lakh,” K K Dubey, counsel of Essar official, said. The court had asked the Essar official not to leave the country without the permission of the court.
Verma has been detained in Jagdalpur Central Jail. The Essar officials said that he would be released from the jail later today evening after completing all the formalities as directed by the court.