Racket diverting imported coal unearthed in Visakhapatnam

"We have arrested 11 persons including two supervisors of two private companies who indulged in diversion of imported coal from the port here and sold it to other places," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crimes) J Brahma Reddy told PTI.

Following a complaint from Sharat Chatterji & Company, which deals in transportation and lease of imported coal, that actual delivery of coal was not taking place and that they suspected diversion of coal which resulted in a loss of over Rs 3 crore to them, the police registered a case.

According to the complainant, the coal imported from Australia which was supposed to reach the godowns of Tirupati Fuels Pvt Ltd at Parvada near Visakhapatnam was diverted.

During the probe, it was detected that two supervisors Ramana Murthy (Sharat Chatterji & Co) and Swaroop (Tirupati Fuels) had "colluded" and were allegedly diverting one truck load out of three truck loads during transportation for the past one month and had so far diverted 30 truck loads of coal, the DCP said.

The market price of each truck load is around Rs 3 lakh, but the accused used to sell it between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 1.6 lakh, the senior police officer said adding, "the stolen coal was being sold to buyers in Bihar, Pune and other parts of Andhra Pradesh."

Following the confession of the duo, the police arrested nine persons including some buyers and seized five trucks, two cars, 25 metric tonnes of diverted coal and Rs 11.51 lakh cash from them.