By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR/CUTTACK: The key accused in Uliburu Mining Scam in Odisha’s mineral rich Keonjhar, Deepak Gupta has got a three-month interim conditional bail from October 1, 2020 to January 2, 2021from Odisha High Court.
While granting the bail, the HC asked Gupta him to deposit Rs 1 crore in the lower court and two surety bonds of Rs 2 crore each. He was also directed to deposit his passport in the lower court. In case he does not have a passport, he would submit an affidavit in this regard in the lower court.
Besides, Gupta was asked to provide his address, where he would stay after release on bail, phone number and email details to the Vigilance authorities. The court also set a condition for him not to influence the witnesses.
Earlier, Gupta’s bail plea had been rejected by the High Court and the Supreme Court on several occasions. He later moved the Keonjhar Special Vigilance Court seeking bail but his plea was turned down.
Following this, he again knocked at the doors of the High Court on August 7, 2019 seeking regular bail. But the court rejected the regular bail plea and directed the lower court to expedite the hearing of the case.In his bail plea, Gupta stated that there was hardly any progress in hearing of the case in the lower court, thereby not adhering to the directive of the High Court.
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.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.
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.
