ROURKELA: A group of armed miscreants on Wednesday night breached the high security zone of Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) and looted costly ferroniobium mineral. They also entered the processing control (PC) room of SMS-II and held employees captive before looting the mineral.
Although the RSP authorities claimed that the stolen material was recovered by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel from the fleeing miscreants, the plant insiders said ferroniobium, a costly material used in steel making, worth about `30 lakh was stolen.
Tangarpali police station IIC MR Pradhan said on Thursday a case has been registered on complaint of the RSP authorities and investigation is on.
Quoting RSP’s complaint, Pradhan said around 15-20 miscreants, two of them holding firearms and rest armed with sharp weapons, landed on the CP room of Steel Melting Shop-II (SMS-II), took about 10 employees hostage and locked them in a room.
Then they looted some ferroniobium. But while escaping, the miscreants were intercepted by the CISF personnel.
They fired at least two rounds to scare away the CISF personnel and then escaped leaving behind the contraband, the IIC said.
The incident took place despite the vast RSP complex being secured with high perimeter walls and manned by CISF personnel.
BSM-affiliated Rourkela Ispat Karkhana Karmachari Sangh (RIKKS) president H S Bal said it is surprising that the armed miscreants could easily reach the sensitive SMS-II area, enter the CP Room, hold about 10 employees captive and lock them in a room before leaving with costly material. Despite claims by the RSP that the stolen materials were recovered, he said two drums of ferroniobium worth about `30 lakh were stolen.
On August 16 night, around six miscreants had made an unsuccessful attempt to steal ferroniobium from SMS-II, he said and added that the RSP authorities have failed to learn from repeated thefts from different plant areas and demanded review of security system to plug the gaps.
Leader of INTUC-affiliated Rourkela Shramik Sangh (RSS) Prashant Behera said on December 31 last year and four days later, miscreants had stolen ferroniobium worth about `1.3 crore from Store-II of Materials Management Department. Three employees were made scapegoats with their suspensions, he added.