Bhubaneswar, July 9: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today conducted raids at 10 places in the state, including the residence of Champua legislator Sanatan Mahakud in Keonjhar district, in connection with the ongoing mining scam.
Sources said searches were also made at five other locations in Tamil Nadu and Bengal.
According to sources, the agency conducted raids on Sirajuddin and Co, Indrani Patnaik and Company, Triveni Earthmovers and a transport company, in which Mahakud, the 57-year-old Independent legislator, is a partner.
The central agency officials raided Mahakud's Champua residence. Searches were also conducted in Keonjhar, Bhubaneswar and Rourkela.
Mahakud, who had contested the 2009 elections on a Congress ticket, quit the party and fought the 2014 general elections as an Independent candidate. Mahakud hogged the limelight when he declared assets worth Rs 69 crore in his affidavit in the 2014 general elections. He could not be contacted for his comments on the raid.
The raids are being conducted on the basis of an FIR registered by the central agency under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act on the basis of a report of the committee, headed by retired Supreme Court judge M.B. Shah, and the criminal complaints filed by the Odisha vigilance department in 2012.
In 2012, the vigilance department had registered a case against these individuals and their firms. The next year, the department filed a charge sheet against them in connection with the mining scam.
The Justice M.B. Shah Commission had listed a number of mines in the state for a range of violations from excess production and tax evasion to working without environmental and forest clearances. Both Sirajuddin and Indrani Patnaik mines had featured in the list. The name of Triveni Earthmovers had also featured in the Shah commission report for allegedly violating rule 37 of the Mineral Concession Rules, which prohibits transfer of mining rights without prior consent of the state.
In May, the ED had attached property to the tune of about Rs 379 crore, owned by businessman Deepak Gupta, the prime accused in the Uliburu mining scam.
