Essar under scanner for paying Maoists

The police have "some credible leads" indicating direct involvement of a Chhattisgarh-based Essar general manager and two other staff members in paying huge sums to the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), a police officer told IANS.

The development follows intense interrogation of a contractor working for Essar, B.K. Lala.
Lala was held last week at a weekly market in Palnar village, where he is alleged to have handed over Rs.15 lakh in cash to journalist-cum-activist Lingaram Kodopi, who too was arrested.

The police claim Kodopi was receiving the money on behalf of Maoists, though human rights activists say he has been falsely implicated.

"Leads emerging after arrest of Lala and Kodopi indicate the transaction amount runs into several million to persuade several Dantewada-based Maoist factions to allow the Essar Group to reopen a 267-km iron ore slurry pipeline, which has been blasted at several places between Dantewada's Kirandul and Andhra Pradesh's port city Visakhapatnam," the police officer said.

Dantewada's Superintendent of Police Ankit Garg, who is handling the case, said: "The names of a number of company (Essar) officials have cropped up. I don't want to share the leads with the media now but you can expect strong police action very soon."
The company, however, denied that it has paid the guerrillas.

"Essar strongly refutes all these allegations. Essar is fully cooperating with authorities in the investigation. Essar has been hiring some equipment from the contractor in question. He was also doing some miscellaneous contract work for us, as he has also been a contractor for many other companies," Manish Kedia, senior vice-president (corporate affairs), Essar Group, told IANS in an email.