Orissa High Court

Cuttack, Jan. 25: A petitioner who has filed a PIL in a multi-crore mining scam, has accused the Orissa government of deliberately keeping the Orissa High Court in the dark about the theft of the illegally mined manganese ore that was seized from Ram Bahadur Thakur Ltd.

Petitioner Pratap Chandra Rout stated this in his rejoinder to the counter affidavit filed by the Orissa government. “The state government had made no mention of the theft of the seized ores in the counter affidavit filed by it,” Rout alleged in his rejoinder affidavit. His counsel Durga Charan Mohanty filed it on Monday.

“What is shocking is that neither the state nor the vigilance department has any information about the theft or the whereabouts of the seized ores,” alleged Rout, who is one of the four petitioners seeking a CBI probe into the multi-crore mining scam.

The two-judge bench of Chief Justice V. Gopal Gowda and Justice B.N. Mohapatra had heard the Orissa government’s plea on January 11 and adjourned hearing on the PILs to February 1, while giving the lawyers of the petitioners time till then to file rejoinders to the counter affidavit filed by the Orissa government.

The alleged scam involved illegal mining from two manganese mines in Keonjhar region of Orissa that had not been leased out. The Orissa government had stated that it had ordered an inquiry by the vigilance department into illegal mining activities in the area that Ram Bahadur Thakur Ltd had applied for — in Rudukela and Katasahi mines area — for taking action against the persons involved.

The state vigilance had registered 15 cases pertaining to illegal mining and a charge-sheet has been filed in only two cases so far. “The charge-sheeted accused have not been booked under different sections of the Indian Penal Code although they clearly attracted penal provisions. Instead, the charge-sheet has been submitted under the Prevention of Corruption Act or Section 21 of the Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation Act 1957,” the petitioner said.

“Thus the charge-sheet is the product of unfair investigation that was not transparent and is therefore not credible,” he alleged.

The Orissa government had in its counter affidavit contended that as the charge-sheet had been filed by the state vigilance department, the CBI is precluded from investigating the case.