TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: The special investigation team (SIT), probing 16 cases of illegal mining and related offences, has filed a charge sheet against Directors of Seagull Ore Carriers Pvt Ltd, Regmington Antao and Mohammed Usman Sheikh, before the judicial magistrate first class at Vasco on Monday.
Antao and Sheikh have been charged with forging documents of the Mines department to obtain loans from a nationalized bank. The charge sheet has been filed under sections 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 471 (producing forged documents) of the Indian Penal Code.
The 285-page charge sheet contains statements of 15 witnesses, including the mines director, bank officials and chartered accountants who testified before the sleuths during the course of investigation.
As per the charge sheet, the bank audit of Seagull Ore Carriers found that the directors submitted forged documents showing stock of around 80,000 tons of iron ore at different jetties, in order to obtain the loan. The Mines department on verifying the papers found that the NOC dated October 4, 2012, had not been issued by them, following which a case was registered. Mines director Prasanna Acharya had subsequently filed a complaint on June 20, 2014 which led to the arrests of the two directors on August 7, 2014. They were bailed out later.
The SIT has already filed a charge sheet in one case of illegal mining in May against Frost International Ltd involving suspended Mines Director Arvind Lolienkar for conniving with others to export 1.35 million metric tons of ore to China on fake NOCs. The illegality had incurred a loss of Rs 1.17 crore to the State treasury.
SIT officials had earlier said that investigations in all cases are on a fast track. Sources said the charge sheet against directors of Magnum Minerals, Prashant Sahoo and Ravindra Prakash, is also expected shortly.
The details of extraction, storage and trade till September 2012 – when mining operations were shut, information regarding production, export, purchase of ore, domestic sale, iron ore storage, opening and closing stock, clearances from the Ministry of Environment and Forest, Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) among others are already in the SIT custody.
The sleuths are also in possession of reports of the Justice M B Shah Commission, Supreme Court’s CEC and PAC for the probe. Meanwhile, the SIT has sought Karnataka police’s assistance in investigating the case.
