The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday raided 15 places across the country, including three locations in the city, in connection with the Rs 2,000-crore iron ore scam. The operation-code, named as ‘Operation Earth’, is based on vigilance cases registered by the Odisha government.
According to sources, several companies, including Serajuddin and Company, Tarini Minerals and Yezdani International, were allegedly involved in illegal mining in Odisha. These companies had been allegedly mining outside the leased areas in Odisha and exporting minerals illegally for around 13 years. Under the instruction of the Justice M B Shah Commission, formed to investigate illegal mining of iron ore and manganese, Odisha government has already conducted a probe. Odisha vigilance chargesheet shows that the illegal iron-ore mining at these three mines alone has caused a loss of around Rs 2,352 crore to the state exchequer.
ED officials on Thursday raided three places in Kolkata including offices and residence of Seraj Yusha, the director of Serajuddin and Company. Sources said that Serajuddin and Company, which has mining activities in the Barbil area of Odisha, has duped government and evaded revenue and royalty for mining activities. The company, which has offices in Abdul Hamid Road and Bentinck Street, has reportedly been getting patronage from the gulf area.
Apart from Serjauddin and Company, the sleuths also conducted raids at the offices of miners Indrani Patnaik and B Prabhakaran. The latter calls himself ‘Robin Hood’. A team of around 100 officials, coordinated by ED special director (ER) Yogesh Gupta, raided 15 places including six in Keonjhar, three in Kolkata, two each in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela and one each in Salem and Coimbatore. It raided offices of Indrani Patnaik, vice chairman of the Altrade Group.
The vigilance department in Odisha had initiated a case against Patnaik in 2012. Both Patnaik and Seraj have mining leases under the Joda circle in Keonjhar. “These firms have also suppressed volume of export consignments. Since sub-leasing of mines was not allowed, they gave contracts to other companies to carry out mining activities,” said an ED official.
Prasanta Patnaik