ED raids 15 places on illegal mining trail

Offices of Serajuddin, Indrani Patnaik, Thriveni Earthmovers searched

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today conducted simultaneous raids at 15 places across three states in connection with its money laundering probe in illegal mining of iron ore in Odisha.

The Kolkata zonal headquarter of the investigative agency carried out the raids in three states- Odisha, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

“We have raided 10 places in Odisha including six in Keonjhar and two each in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela. Besides Odisha, we have done searches at three locations in Kolkata and one each in Salem and Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu). The raids relate to the illegal iron ore mining scam valued at around Rs 2,000 crore,” an ED source told Business Standard.

The ED team raided the homes and offices of two miners — Serajuddin Mines (Keonjhar) and Indrani Patnaik and that of mine developer cum operator Thriveni Earthmovers Ltd and Champua MLA Sanatan Mahakud, who runs a mineral transport agency.

“Multiple teams of the agency assisted by local police conducted the searches. The action is being carried out as part of an FIR registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act,” said sources aware of the development.

The ED Kolkata office took cognisance of the Justice (retd) M B Shah committee report and also the criminal complaints filed by Odisha Vigilance department in these cases of illegal iron-ore mining before registering its own FIR, sources added.

Sources said, searches were also being carried out at the premises of a BJP MLA and a women Congress politician of Odisha against whom ED has slapped charges of money laundering.

The Odisha Vigilance department had registered FIRs against these people and their firms in 2012 and filed a charge sheet against them the next year in the scam pegged at about Rs 2,000 crore. Officials said, the operation has been codenamed ‘Earth’.

ED has registered a total of three FIRs to probe money laundering instances in illegal iron-ore mining scam in eastern states, the most prominent one being the Uliburu mining case of Odisha.

In May this year, the ED issued orders attaching assets worth Rs 400 crore of three firms, their owners and associates in the Uliburu mining scam. The agency, sources said, attached a number of immovable and movable assets of the accused firms in the case like Deepak Steel, Deepak Steel and Power and Sneh Pushp and their directors like Deepak Kumar, Champak Gupta and Haricharan Gupta and a few others. Uliburu mines area is located in Joda mining circle in Keonjhar district of the state and large scale irregularities were detected there by the state mines department a few years back.

Justice Shah Commission, which probed a number of mining scam cases in Odisha and Goa, had termed this particular case as “one of the biggest illegal mining ever” and recommended a CBI probe into the matter.