By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR/BARBIL: Deepak Gupta, MD of Barbil, Keonjhar based Deepak Steel and Power Limited and mastermind of Uliburu Mining Scam in Odisha’s Joda-Koira Mining Circles, was on Friday got an interim bail for one month from High Court. The Mines scam key accused, Deepak Gupta, has sought for regular bail, which the court rejected.
Deepak Gupta is the prime accused in the Rs 1,800 crore mining scam of September 2013.State vigilance officials arrested him on September 4, 2013, for his alleged involvement in the mining scam at Uliburu in Keonjhar. The case pertains to Uliburu mines area located in Joda mining circle in Keonjhar district of Odisha where large-scale alleged irregularities were detected by the state mines department.
While granting the interim bail, the High Court set certain conditions including deposit of Rs 1 crore in cash with the court and surety of Rs 2 crore. Ordering Gupta not to go outside Keonjhar without its permission, the court directed him to appear before the court physically on each date of hearing of the case during the interim bail period and surrender his passport with the court and surrender in the court after completion of the interim bail period of one month.
Deepak had the power of attorney of an iron ore mine at Uliburu in Keonjhar, lease of which was with BK Mohanty. Leaseholder of the mine Mohanty illegally extracted iron ore beyond the permissible limit in the mining plan following which Deepak and several others were arrested by state Vigilance Department September 4, 2013 for his alleged involvement in the scam.
In 2015, Ex-Deputy Director Manas Ranjan Mohanty was arrested by Vigilance officers here for allowing extraction of huge quantity of iron ore illegally beyond the Mining Lease area of Uliburu Reserve Forest Area in Keonjhar district
The Enforcement Directorate Kolkata zonal office, under which Odisha falls, had attached a number of immovable and movable assets of the accused firms in the case like Ms Deepak Steel, Ms Deepak Steel and Power and Ms Sneh Pushp and their directors like Deepak Kumar, Champak Gupta and Haricharan Gupta and a few others.
Justice Shah Commission, which probed a number of mining scam cases in Odisha and Goa, had termed this particular case as “one of the biggest illegal minings ever” and recommended a CBI probe into the matter.
