CBI carries out searches at 10 locations in WB in ECL coal pilferage case

The CBI on Thursday conducted searches at 10 locations in West Bengal in connection with an alleged multi-crore coal pilferage scam in the Eastern Coalfields Ltd mines in the state's Kunustoria and Kajora areas, officials said.

The searches are taking place at multiple locations in Kolkata and other cities as part of further investigation into the case, they said.

The agency had charge-sheeted alleged mastermind Anup Manjhi alias Lala along with 40 others in July last year in connection with the case.

The CBI registered an FIR in November 2020 against Manjhi, ECL general managers Amit Kumar Dhar and Jayesh Chandra Rai, ECL security chief Tanmay Das, Kunustoria area security inspector Dhananjay Rai and Kajor area security in-charge Debashish Mukherjee.

"They (accused) fraudulently misappropriated coal from the coal reserve of leasehold areas under the dominion of ECL and also from the coal stock parked in the railway sidings for sale and supply," a CBI spokesperson had said on July 19 last year after the charge sheet was filed before a court in Asansol.

The official alleged that the accused obtained undue advantage in the form of huge and regular cash amounts as bribes from the said private person (Manjhi) and facilitated the misappropriation of coal from the ECL leasehold area and the corresponding railway siding and thereby, extended undue protection and patronage to the illegal coal syndicate being run by him.