Keonjhar SP suspends cop on ore theft charges

The Keonjhar district police on Sunday suspended a constable for his alleged involvement in mineral ore theft case happened over the weekend. He was arrested on Saturday and has been forwarded to the court, said Ashish Kumar Singh, superintended of police (SP).

“On Friday we had arrested some people while they were trying to transport iron ore illegally. During interrogation, one of them revealed that they had bribed constable Ramakant Rout. So based on that information we arrested him on Saturday and he was suspended today,” he said. The suspended police official was the secretary of Keonjhar constable police association.

Even as mining activity has been suspended in key areas of Joda and Koira, illegal raising of minerals has been going on in full swing in the unleased areas.

Between July and September, the state mining and mineral monitoring team captured 40,723 tonne of minerals worth Rs 8.37 lakh while they were transported illegally and received Rs 20.14 lakh as penalty.

In the seizure process, the steel and mines department also captured the vehicles used in the process of storage and transportation, amounting to Rs 54.72 lakh.