Bengal coal smuggling case: Brother of prime accused taken to custody by CBI

Kolkata: Vikas Mishra, brother of the prime accused in the alleged multi- crore coal smuggling scam in West Bengal Vinay Mishra, on Friday was taken into custody by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Vinay Mishra, a former youth Trinamool Congress leader, is currently absconding, and as believed by the CBI, he is currently underground at Vanuatu Island.

CBI originally arrested Vikas Mishra from New Delhi in December 2021. However, the central agency sleuths could hardly get him into custody for questioning as he had spent the major part of that tenure in hospital. Recently he was released on bail by the Calcutta High Court.

However, the CBI challenged that decision of the Calcutta HIgh Court at the Supreme Court. On April 10, the apex court allowed the CBI to take Mishra in custody.

On Friday, as he appeared at the special court of CBI at Asansol in West Burdwan district of West Bengal, the judge of the special court directed CBI to take custody of him at the court premises only. His CBI custody will be four days till May 16 and he will be presented at the same court on that date only.

On Thursday only, the CBI sleuths arrested Sunil Jha, a former director of Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL), a subsidiary of Coal India Limited (CIL), and Anand Kumar Singh, a former inspector of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) in connection with alleged coal smuggling scam.

On Friday, they were presented at the special court of CBI at Asansol, which granted four days of CBI custody for them.

Sources said that both the arrested persons had close connection with the kingpin of the alleged scam, Anup Maji a.k.a. Lala. They were arrested after being questioned at the CBI’s Nizam Palace office here on Thursday.

This is for the first time that a (former) CISF official has been netted by CBI in connection to its probe into the alleged coal smuggling scam. Sources said that lots of inconsistencies were detected in the statements given by Jha and Singh during questioning, following which they were arrested.

–IANS