Uliburu scam: Police asked to produce all accused

Cuttack: In a major development in the Rs 1,800 crore Uliburu mining scam, the special vigilance court here today directed police to produce all the accused before it on December 2.

The court is expected to conduct a hearing of the accused on the scheduled date, sources said.

The Vigilance sleuths submitted supplementary chargesheet against three accused government employees including ex-Deputy Director of Mines Manas Ranjan Mohanty in court.

In June this year, Mohanty was arrested by the anti-corruption vigilance wing for allowing extraction of huge quantity of iron ore illegally beyond the Mining Lease area of Uliburu Reserve Forest Area in Keonjhar district.

Mohanty and others, in connivance with Mining Lease holders, had fraudulently and dishonestly allowed other accused persons to extract huge quantity of iron ore illegally beyond the Mining Lease area and permitted them to dispatch/sell at undervalued price to M/s Deepak Steel & Power Ltd and others causing huge loss to the government exchequer.

In May, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had issued orders attaching assets worth Rs 400 crore of three firms, their owners and associates in the Uliburu mining scam case which was also probed by Justice (retd) M B Shah Commission for alleged financial irregularities and corruption.