A local court in Korba has summoned the chief executive of Vedanta-controlled Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd (Balco), Gunjan Gupta, over the collapse of the chimney in the company’s power plant on September 23 last year. Forty-one people had died when the chimney of the 1,200 Mw power plant came crashing down.
The Additional District and Session Judge, MD Jagdalla, passed an order asking Gupta to appear before the court with all relevant documents on July 31. “It appears that the role of the CEO is crucial in the case (of chimney collapse),” the court observed while starting the hearing in the biggest industrial accident of Chhattisgarh on Friday in Korba.
This is the first time the company’s CEO has come under the scanner over the accident. Earlier, the police had arrested two executives and a trainee engineer. A Balco spokesperson declined comment on the development.
The Korba police had registered a case under section 304 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code on the charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. In April, the police filed a 70,000-page charge sheet against officials of Balco, Chinese company Shandong Electric Power Construction Corporation and Gannon Dunkerly and Company Ltd. While the Chinese firm had bagged the contract for setting up the 1,200 Mw power plant near the aluminium facility of Balco in Korba, about 220 km from here, Gannon Dunkerley was awarded the Rs 60-crore work for constructing the chimney.
Meanwhile, Press Trust of India reported that a vice-president of Sterlite Industries, another Vedanta company, was arrested today in connection with alleged duty evasion of Rs 750 crore. Quoting government officials, it said the alleged duty evasion in the import of raw materials for production of copper products was detected during a recent raid in the company’s factory in Tuticorin.
