VIJAY
Ranchi, March 3: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday carried out a raid against the former contractual staff of the Jharkhand State Mineral Development Corporation (JSMDC) Ashok Kumar Singh besides several other companies in connection with the misuse of coal linkage.
Raids are being carried out at the Ranchi residence of Ashok Kumar Singh besides offices of companies in Hazaribagh, Ramgarh and others. Ashok Kumar was coal and sand in-charge cum project officer of JSMDC till his contract was terminated in December last year.
The allegation is that Ashok Kumar Singh was in connivence with several small and medium companies and he issued coal permits to these companies for internal use. But these companies traded coal in the open market.
The state government has a policy to provide coal at a cheap rate to small and medium enterprises through coal mines of the companies of the central government undertakings. The JSMDC became the nodal agency for the supply of coal to such small and medium enterprises. It is alleged that Ashok Kumar Singh on payment of certain kickbacks provided allotment papers. The ED is also investigating the role of the then managing directors of the JSMDC.
Ashok Kumar Singh is considered close to former mining secretary Pooja Singhal who served as managing director of the JSMDC. Before, her IAS K Shrinivasan had held this post.
Ashok Kumar Singh allegedly enjoyed the patronage and Pooja Singhal gave him important responsibilities in JSMDC though he faced charges of corruption and an FIR was lodged against him.
He was initially appointed on a contract basis to the post of Project Officer of the Garhwa district of JSMDC. He was promoted as a Sand-in charge-cum-Coal-in charge cum Establishment officer. It is despite the fact that his appointment was purely on a temporary basis and his contract lapsed in 2017. JSMDC is a public sector company and a contractual employee cannot be inducted into the permanent post and get promoted although his service itself is contractual.
He was booked under sections 420, 379 and 411 of IPC and section 54 of JMMC Rule in Ketar PS Case No. 04/2019 in Garhwa district. The FIR was registered as he was allegedly involved in forging a single used challan multiple times. But despite that, he was promoted and given important responsibilities.
