Purulia police and the Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) jointly held raids in four villages under Neturia police station area in the district to find several active illegal coal mines.

The raids, carried out on Friday, came in the backdrop of the CBI probing a multi-crore coal scam since November 2020 following complaints lodged by the ECL. No arrests have been made during the raids.

ECL has closed the illegal coal pits with sand.

Police said it was a routine inspection and had no connection with the presence of the CBI in the district. “It was a joint inspection with the ECL and part of routine work,” said Ajoy Ganapati Kumbar, subdivisional police officer, Raghunathpur.

However, Purulia superintendent of police S. Selvamurugan and inspector-in-charge of Raghunathpur police station Sanjoy Chakraborty have been questioned by the CBI twice in connection with the coal scam case.

A part of Raghunathpur subdivision in Purulia, where Neturia and Shanturi are located, comes under ECL’s vast leasehold coal belt and are known as hubs of coal smuggling.

The raids were conducted at Bhamuria gram panchayat area under Neturia police station limits. The residence of Anup Maji alias Lala, one of the prime accused in the coal scam, is also located in the area. The CBI has in the past raided his house and sealed it.

Sources said ECL authorities received information that racketeers had reopened some illegal coal pits in their leasehold area and told the police.

A police team and ECL officials went to Shaltor, Pathardiha, Bhamuria and Debidanga villages along the Damodar river and found that smugglers had dug several pits to extract coal. Sources said local youths, who earlier allegedly used to work under Lala when coal smuggling was at its peak, had been again extracting coal from the area.

ECL officials and the police recorded the video footage of the place.

“We frequently inspect areas under our leasehold and fill up pits when we come to know about illegal mining,” said an ECL official.