Court rejects bail pleas of Balco officers

The local court in Korba has rejected the bail plea of top Vedanta Resources officials who were arrested on November 17 in connection with the chimney mishap in the company-owned Bharat Aluminium Company Limited (Balco).

The police had arrested Balcos Vice-President and Project Manager Viral Mehta, Assistant General Manager (project) Deepak Narang and graduate trainee engineer Anoop Mahapatra in connection with the collapse of under-construction chimney at the power plant.

The incident that took place on September 23 killed 41 people. According to legal sources, the hearing on the bail plea of Mehta and Narang continued in the court of district and session judge of Korba till late yesterday evening. The Judge, M D Katulkar said that the offence was serious in nature and hence bail could not be granted to the officials, sources said.

The court had earlier rejected the bail plea of Mahapatra and Manoj Sharma, the project manager of Gannon Dunkerley and Company Limited (GDCL), who was also arrested in connection with the incident.

The GDCL had bagged the Rs 60-crore-contract to build chimney in the power plant of Balco. The Chinese construction company, Shandong Electric Power Construction Corporation (SEPCO), has been was awarded work for setting up 1200-Mw power plant.

The arrests were made following an offence registered by the police under section 304 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on the charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and common intention.