A fifteen member team of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided the administrative office of Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) owned Hirri dolomite mines located here on Thursday.
Dolomite is used in steel plants as raw material and is being transported to BSP, the flagship entity of Steel Authority of India limited (SAIl).
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) CBI, SN Sharma, who was accompanied by a vigilance team from BSP, informed that the action was taken following complaints of ore swindling.
“Initially, we found financial wrongdoings to the tune of Rs65 crore. There was a huge difference in the production and dispatch of the ore and the stock registers are being cross-checked with management’s record,” he said.
Meanwhile, sources informed that Hirri mines in April 2015 had recorded production of 1.38 lakh tonnes of dolomites. However, the next month production dipped to mere 28,000 tonnes, which raised serious alarm about a massive wrongdoing and a game of forgery going on at the Hirri mines.
Sources further said that officers at Hirri mines are finding it difficult to justify the difference between production and dispatch register.
The vigilance team of BSP also visited the railway siding at Dadhapara from where dolomites are sent to Bhilai Steel Plant via goods trains. Surveyors from IBM and SECl have been called who are measuring the dolomites in the mines, sources said.