The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday searched 45 locations in four States in connection with the illegal mining and theft of coal from Kunustoria and Majora collieries in West Bengal's West Burdwan.
“The searches are being carried out in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh,” said a CBI official. Both the collieries come under the Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL).
Among those named in the FIR registered on Friday is notorious coal mafia Anup Maji aka Lala, who had been active for the past several years and had built a huge network with his associates. He is also said to have strong political links.
The other accused persons are two ECL General Managers, Amit Kumar Dhar (then of Kunustoria Area) and Jayesh Chandra Rai (Kajora Area); Chief of Security (Asansol) Tanmay Das; Area Security Inspector Kunustoria Dhananjay Rai; and Security In-Charge (Kajora Area) Debashish Area.
Unknown officials of the Railway and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) are also under the scanner for facilitating theft and transportation of coal.
The CBI move is said to be a part of the crackdown on the coal mafia in the Eastern region by multiple enforcement agencies over the past few weeks.
According to the FIR, the allegation pertains to illegal excavation and theft of coal by criminal elements from the leasehold area of ECL in connivance with the officials of ECL, CISF, Railway and other departments.
A joint inspection by the Vigilance Department and the Task Force of ECL on its several leasehold areas from May 2020 onwards unearthed evidence of large scale illegal mining involving the coal mafia. The team seized a large number of vehicles and equipment used in illegal coal mining and transportation. Several instances of installation of illegal weigh bridges in concrete form were also detected.
During the departmental raids at a railway siding of the Pandaveswar area on August 7, 9.05 metric tonne of stolen coal was seized. Similar seizures were made at several other railway locations.