The session court in Dantewada on Wednesday granted bail to Essar general manager, one of the accused in the alleged payouts of protection money by Essar Group to Maoists in Chhattisgarh.
According to KK Dubey, counsel of Essar officer DVCS Verma, the session court has granted bail to the general manager on the condition that two sureties each of Rs 2 lakh be furnished and he is not allowed to leave the country without prior permission of the court.
Verma was arrested previous year on September 27 by Dantewada police following the investigation into the role of multinational company Essar in giving cash to Maoists to safeguard its business operation in the state. The company strongly denies of any linkage with payouts.
Besides Verma, a civil contractor BK Lala, and two alleged naxal conduits Soni Sori (a tribal school teacher) and her nephew Lingaram Kodopi were sentenced to judicial custody. While Lala and Kodopi were arrested in Dantewada on September 9, Sori was nabbed by the police on October 4 at Delhi.
“No bail application was moved on behalf of either Soni Sori and Kodopi since other cases remain pending against the two. The court had earlier rejected the bail application of Lala”, Dubey told Hindustan Times.
{{/usCountry}}“No bail application was moved on behalf of either Soni Sori and Kodopi since other cases remain pending against the two. The court had earlier rejected the bail application of Lala”, Dubey told Hindustan Times.
{{/usCountry}}Chhattisgarh police in October last constituted a four-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by inspector general of police (CID) to probe into the alleged cash transfer to Maoists.
The Vishakhapatnam-based MNC controls its operation in Dantewada, about 450 km south of Raipur, since last ten years. The company has built 267 km slurry pipeline from Bailadila to Vizag to carry iron ores and large part of the existing facilities exist in the red zone. The company claimed their benefication plant and slurry pipeline have suffered damage at least 16 times so far leading to huge financial losses and loss in production.