Enforcement Directorate has issued summons to eight Indian Police Service (IPS) officers in the West Bengal coal scam case. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered a charge sheet against 41 people involved in the coal smuggling case. The investigation by ED indicates that IPS officers were well aware of coal smuggling, but no action was taken by them.
CBI arrested then General Manager (now retired) Pandaveswar Area of Eastern Coalfields Limited on 15th July in an ongoing investigation of a case. The accused was identified as Subhas Kumar Mukhopadhyay. The charge sheet that was filed by CBI against 41 accused includes Anup Majhi and former Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Vinay Mishra.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Abhishek Banerjee had been by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a coal smuggling case summoned on 29 March. ED interrogated Banerjee for 8 hours on 21 March. According to sources, few of the summoned IPS officers were appointed in the area where illegal coal mining and smuggling were taking place.
Eastern Coalfields (ECL) has come under investigation by probe agencies after a case was filed in September 2020 alleging that ECL employees and officials of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), railway department, and unknown others had fraudulently misappropriated coal from the reserves of the leasehold areas under the ECL.
