CBI team probing illegal mining visits Asansol-Durgapur belt

Kolkata, Feb 2 (IANS) A team of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) visited the colliery belts of the Asansol-Durgapur region in West Bengal on Tuesday as part of its investigation into the coal mining scam.The CBI team went to the Andal area and visited some open cast mines at Kajora, carrying out a detailed probe into the illegal mining issue. Sources said the team also carried out some raids in the Asansol-Durgapur belt to collate more information about the illegal network.Officers from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were also there with the CBI team when they reached the open cast mines. Some Eastern Coal Fields (ECL) officials also accompanied the federal investigation agency sleuths, sources said.Earlier on November 28 last year, the CBI's anti-corruption branch had conducted marathon raids in as many as 45 different locations in West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh in connection with a coal-smuggling racket.The probe agency had raided the offices and homes of kingpin Anup Majhi, alias Lala, in Asansol, Durgapur and Raniganj in Burdwan district, as well as at Bishnupur in Kolkata's adjoining South 24-Parganas district.That time they had also carried out search operations in some of the houses of Majhi's associates. Majhi is the alleged kingpin of the illegal coal operation that was running in the open cast colliery belts along the Bengal-Jharkhand border.
--IANS sbn/arm