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The CBI has issued a lookout circular (LOC) against the brother of a TMC leader in connection with a case of illegal mining of coal and its pilferage.
The LOC has been issued against Bijay Mishra, said to be the brother of Trinamool youth leader Binay Mishra. The latter is said to be a close associate of Abhishek Banerjee, party MP and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee’s nephew.
Sources said Binay Mishra is a chargesheeted accused in a case of cattle smuggling and is suspected to have fled the country.
The CBI is currently working on getting an Interpol Red Corner Notice issued against him, it is learnt.
The Mishra brothers are under probe for both alleged cattle smuggling and coal pilferage. They are said to be associated with key accused in the case, Anup Majhi.
The CBI had last month questioned Abhishek’s wife Rujuira Banerjee in the coal pilferage case.
The agency also summoned two senior officers of West Bengal Police — an inspector general and a superintendent of police — on Monday for questioning in connection with the cattle smuggling case, an official said.
The CBI named Binay Mishra as a co-accused in its supplementary chargesheet filed in the cattle-smuggling case last month.
On February 18, the agency filed a chargesheet in the case against BSF Commandant Satish Kumar and six others for their alleged involvement in a cattle-smuggling racket operating on the India-Bangladesh border.
On November 27 last year, the CBI’s Kolkata Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) registered a case of corruption and criminal breach of trust with regard to illegal mining and pilferage of coal from leasehold area of Eastern Coalfields Ltd in certain parts of West Bengal. The ECL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Coal India Ltd, a Public Sector Undertaking, and does coal mining in West Bengal and Jharkhand.
The CBI case is based on an inspection carried out by the Vigilance Department and ECL task force in May-August last year where “evidence of extensive illegal mining in the leasehold area of ECL and its transportation was found”.
The CBI’s FIR states: “The team found several machinery which were used for excavating coal from illegal mining. During these inspections, a large number of vehicles and equipments used in illegal coal mining / its transportation and illegally excavated coal have been seized. Several instances of installation of illegal weigh bridges in concrete form were also detected which confirms of illegal coal mining and transportation from ECL areas in organized manner at a very large scale.”
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