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Coal smuggling case: CBI files charge sheet against ex-TMC leader and 40 others
The investigation is continuing, CBI told a special court at Asansol in West Burdwan district where the charge sheet was filed. The probe started in November 2020.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday filed its first charge sheet in the Bengal coal smuggling case against 41 people, including Anup Majhi, alias Lala, the alleged mastermind, former Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Vinay Mishra and eight employees of the Eastern Coalfields Limited, agency officials said.
The investigation is continuing, CBI told a special court at Asansol in West Burdwan district where the charge sheet was filed. The probe started in November 2020.
The charge sheet named Joydeb Mondal, Narayan Nanda, Nirad Mondal and Gurupada Majhi, who were arrested by CBI in September last year, on charges of helping Majhi run the operation.
The eight Eastern Coalfields employees, including three former and a serving general manager, were arrested in Kolkata between July 13 and 15 after questioning. It was the first time central government officials were arrested in this case.
Some railway officials are also under investigation, CBI said in a statement last week.
It is alleged that illegally mined coal, worth several thousand crores of rupees, has been sold in the black market in recent years by a group operating in the western parts of West Bengal where Eastern Coalfields - an arm of state-owned Coal India - operates several mines.
Lawyers present at the special court in Asansol on Tuesday said CBI officials told the court that Majhi collaborated with former TMC youth wing general secretary Vinay Mishra. One of the prime accused, Mishra renounced his Indian citizenship in December 2020 and became a citizen of Vanuatu, a small island country in the Pacific.
The charge sheet mentioned the names of Mishra’s alleged associates, Ratnesh Verma, Niraj Singh and Amit Singh. The last two are brothers who run a business in Kolkata. CBI has appealed to the court to issue non-bailable arrest warrants against Mishra and these three persons by declaring them absconders.
The charge sheet also accused the owners and directors of eight private companies through which these transactions allegedly took place.
Vinay Mishra’s brother, Vikash, who was earlier arrested by the Enforcement Directorate, which is conducting a parallel investigation in the case, was named in the CBI charge sheet.
Last week, ED filed a petition at the Patiala court in Delhi, asking Vinay Mishra to be declared a fugitive economic offender.
TMC national general secretary and chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee was questioned by ED in Delhi twice earlier this year in connection with the case. Abhishek Banerjee’s wife, Rujira, her sister and the latter’s husband and father-in-law were also interrogated by CBI. Rujira Banerjee was questioned in Kolkata on June 23 by ED. The TMC has previously termed the investigation a witch hunt .
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has alleged that money from the sale of smuggled coal was laundered through shell companies and routed to the TMC. The BJP has alleged that the main beneficiary was Abhishek Banerjee.
An operation of such scale could not continue without the patronage of politicians, West Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said. “The investigation is going on for a long time. People of Bengal want to see it end soon. An operation of this scale could not continue without the patronage of politicians. They should be exposed.”
TMC leaders did not comment on the charge sheet.
After the Eastern Coalfields officials were arrested, Abhishek Banerjee alleged last week that CBI and ED were being selective.
“Why has (BJP leader) Suvendu Adhikari not yet been questioned by CBI in the Saradha chit fund case? Saradha’s owner Sudipta Sen has said on record that he gave a huge amount of money to Adhikari,” Banerjee said.
Adhikari has denied the allegations against him.
