The Keonjhar police arrested one Gautam Chowdhry, owner of United Enterprise Iron Ore Crusher situated at Bansapani under the Joda police station, and his two aides, Sudhir Mohanty and Madan Barik, on the charges of giving false information of stock position of iron ore and sent them to judicial custody on Saturday.
While Chowdhry is a resident of civil town, Rourkela, the other two live at Bhadrasahi near Barbil. Sources revealed that after the illegal mining came to the fore, the Government had closed the United Enterprises along with other crushers in Joda-Barbil mining area since August, 2010. Meanwhile, the United Crusher which had a stock of 12,430 MT of iron ore at the time of closing had been able to sell some 2,678 MT after getting necessary permission from the DDM, Joda in the month of May last. But, later on when the stock was suddenly verified, it did not match with the records.
When mining mafias are trying their best how to deal with their huge unaccounted money after the surgical strike of the Modi Government on black money and corruption, the latest arrest of an iron crusher owner has created tremor in the mining mafia circle. So far, 33 criminals have been arrested by the Keonjhar police after SP Rajesh Pandit started his crackdown against them.