Coal smuggling case: ED summons 8 West Bengal IPS officers

Kolkata, Aug 11: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned eight senior police officers of West Bengal to New Delhi for questioning in the coal smuggling case.

Among the IPS officers summoned by the central agency were Gyanwant Singh (ADG, CID), Koteswara Rao, S Selvamurugan, Shyam Singh, Rajeev Mishra, Sukesh Kumar Jain and Tathagata Basu, officials told PTI.

The IPS officers have been given specific dates to appear before the ED at its New Delhi office, they added.

"These IPS officers played crucial roles in the coal smuggling case. There is evidence that these officers benefited from the scam. All of them were posted in areas where the smuggling happened," the ED official said.

Seven of these eight officers were summoned by the ED last year as well.

A case was registered in September 2020 alleging that ECL employees and officials of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), railway department and unknown others had fraudulently misappropriated coal from the coal reserves of the leasehold areas under the ECL. They had also allegedly taken coal from the coal stock parked in the railway sidings for sale and supply.