BHUBANESWAR: The Bharatiya Janata Party today accused the State Government of trying to bail out the prime accused in the multi-crore mining scam.
While the State Vigilance arrested Shakti Ranjan Das for illegally mining from Ram Bahadur Thakur (RBT) mines on the strength of power of attorney purported to be executed in his favour by one of the directors in RBT Limited, BM Sharma, national BJP secretary Dharmendra Pradhan wondered as to how Sharma is still out of the purview of the investigation.
Pradhan questioned the need for a departmental inquiry when the anti-corruption wing of the Government is probing the scam.
On August 4, Steel and Mines Secretary AK Dalwai served notice to Manmohan Sharma and Chaturbhuja Sharma, both directors of RBT Limited, for personal appearance on October 7.
Pradhan claimed that Chaturbhuja Sharma is no more alive while the whereabouts of Manmohan Sharma is not known.
The former member of the Lok Sabha alleged that the Government is trying to vitiate the vigilance inquiry by conducting a parallel administrative probe and summoning people whose existence is doubtful.
Alleging that the role of the Steel and Mines Secretary is not above suspicion, the BJP leader demanded that he should be immediately relieved from the post.