ED arrests Bengal cop in coal pilferage case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested West Bengal police officer Ashok Mishra in a case of coal pilferage, company officers stated on Sunday.
Mishra, the inspector answerable for Bankura police station for the previous three years, was arrested on Saturday night time.
Sources stated the EC summoned the officer for questioning after which arrested him. He is allegedly near the rip-off’s suspected kingpin Anup Majhi alias Lala, and is accused of being concerned in monetary transactions with coal smugglers. Majhi is scheduled to seem earlier than the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday for questioning.
He has been interrogated twice until now.
Apart from Majhi, Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee’s spouse Rujira Banerjee and her sister Menaka Gambhir have been questioned. Menaka’s husband and father, railway officers, businessmen, and several other cops have additionally been quizzed.
The CBI filed a case on November 27, 2020, in reference to its inquiries into alleged unlawful mining and theft of coal from the Kunustoria and Kajoria coal fields of Eastern Coalfield Limited (ECL). The FIR named a number of senior ECL officers, and unidentified officers of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Railways and different authorities departments. They have been charged beneath IPC sections 120B (prison conspiracy) and 409 (prison breach of belief by public servant) and beneath the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Last month, the ED arrested TMC chief Vinay Mishra’s brother Vikash Mishra in Delhi in reference to a cattle smuggling racket and the coal theft case. Vinay Mishra has been evading interrogation, following which a lookout round was issued in opposition to him, officers stated. The directorate is probing the cash path within the coal case, in keeping with sources.
BJP releases clip, alleges Abhishek involvement
Kolkata: BJP chief Suvendu Adhikari on Sunday launched an audio dialog purportedly between an unidentified particular person and principal accused within the coal pilferage case Anup Majhi’s aide Ganesh Bagaria, and claimed TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee’s involvement. The TMC denied the allegation, saying the discharge was BJP’s try to sidestep actual points in view of its impending defeat within the Assembly polls. The Indian Express couldn’t independently confirm the content material of the audio clip. Adhikari alleged that TMC leaders had obtained as much as Rs 900 crore over 10-12 years. “The TMC and the chief minister are directly involved in the coal scam. The nephew is closely related to Ganesh Bagaria, who has serious allegations against him. Another ally of the nephew, Vikash Mishra, has already been arrested. Police and IPS officers are embroiled in the coal case. We want the central agencies probing the case to speed up the investigation,” he stated at a information convention in Kolkata.
Express News Service