CBI actions against illegal coal trading helped ECL get better price: agency official

Illegal coal trading in theAsansol-Jharia belt in West Bengal and Jharkhand has stoppedcompletely following raids by the Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) which is probing the matter, and ECL isgetting better prices for that, n senior official of theinvestigating agency said on Thursday.

The official said that thousands of crores of rupeeshave been involved in the illegal trading in this zone and, interms of money exchanged illegally, it is a bigger scam thanthe cattle smuggling operation at the India-Bangladesh borderin West Bengal, which is also being investigated by the CBI.

After the probe agency stopped illegal trading in theAsansol-Jharia belt, prices of coal at e-auctions at theEastern Coal Fields (ECL) have gone up, he claimed.

''Because illegal excavation has stopped, consumers arepurchasing coal through the legal routes for which the ECL isnow realising better margins,'' the official told PTI oncondition of anonymity.

The ECL clocked a 40 per cent rise over notifiedprices in the recent e-auctions and CBI raids on illegaltrading are definitely one of the reasons for it, an ECLofficial said.

The CBI official said that its Anti-Corruption Branch(ACB) has taken this action against the coal mafia suo motuand it was not instructed by any government or any otherconstitutional body such as courts.

He said that the ACB under DIG Akhilesh Kumar Singhhas raided the premises of alleged kingpin of the illegal coaltrading racket Anup Majhi alias Lala and his close aideRatnesh Verma.

''These two primary suspects are absconding. Theirescape routes have been closed,'' the official said adding thatif needed, the agency will attach properties of the two.

CBI teams are camping at Asansol in Paschim Bardhamandistrict to find out other people involved in the racket.

According to the official, the CBI found that theamount of money involved in illegal trading of coal amounts tothousands of crores of rupees.

''But the actual loss to Coal India is multiple timesmore due to huge quantum of slush money involved in theseillegal transactions,'' he added.

The CBI is now in the process of building evidence bytalking to various people such as truck drivers who wereinvolved in transporting illegal coal.

The agency, he said, started detecting illegal coalmining much before the rainy season last year. ''Throughout therainy season, the CBI has been lying low. It got into the actonce the rainy season got over''.

He said that six officials of the ECL have also beenidentified for being a part of the racket, of whom one died ofheart attack on the day of the raid at his premises.

The CBI on November 28 carried out a massive searchoperation at 45 locations in four states after registering acase against alleged coal pilferer Anup Manjhi who wassuspected to be acting in collusion with two general managersand three security personnel of the ECL.

The searches were spread across West Bengal, Bihar,Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.