Paradip Port Trust bribery case: Son of Odisha industralist Mahimananda Mishra arrested

Charchit Mishra, the younger son of industrialist and Orissa Stevedores Ltd Managing Director Mahimandanda Mishra, was arrested by the CBI in connection with alleged payment of a bribe of Rs 25 lakh to a Paradip Port Trust functionary, officials said on Saturday.

The CBI also questioned Mahimananda Mishra and his other son Chanchal Mishra at its Bhubaneswar office on Friday.

Saroj Kumar Das, a Chief Mechanical Engineer of Paradip Port Trust who was arrested earlier, had allegedly demanded Rs 60 lakh as bribe from the company to let it off without paying for the repair of a conveyor belt at the port that was damaged during unloading of goods by it. Das had allegedly paid a builder, Sisir Kumar, for a property.

The OSL, one of the biggest cargo handling companies in India which is also into shipping, mining, logistics and exports, is believed to have a monopoly of loading and unloading of cargo at the Paradip Port Trust.

With Mishra's arrest, the CBI has taken into custody four other people, including Das. The other arrested are Das' conduit Sumanta Rout, DGM of OSL Surya Narayan Sahu and Sankha Subhra Mitra, who is allegedly acting as a middleman in connection with the case.

During searches at 15 locations, the central agency seized Rs 84.5 lakh in cash.

"It was alleged that the Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME), Paradip Port Trust (Odisha), was in the habit of demanding and taking bribes through his close conduit (Rout) for extending undue benefits to various private stakeholders engaged in port service and activities at the Paradip Port," the CBI said in a statement.

Rout was in regular contact with Mitra who was Manager, Port Operations of KCT Group of Companies. While unloading cargo, the CBI claimed, the OSL had damaged the conveyor belt operational at the Paradip Port.

"The cost of repairing/replacement of the conveyor belt was very high. The said CME (Das) in conspiracy with conduit (Rout), middleman (Mitra) and Director (Sahu) of said private company got it repaired at the cost of the Port Trust, causing huge monetary advantage to said private company," the CBI said.

"In turn, the conduit (Rout) allegedly demanded Rs 60 lakh as bribe for the favour, on behalf of the CME," the statement said adding Rout allegedly collected a bribe amount of Rs 25 lakh.

It is claimed that Rout handed over Rs 10 lakh to a real estate developer Sisir Kumar with whom Das had booked a property.

Rout was intercepted by CBI in Paradip and recovered Rs 5 lakh. "Later, Rs 18.30 lakh, also part of the alleged bribe, was recovered. During further searches, Rs 20.25 lakh, jewellery, documents related to investment and other incriminating documents were recovered from the CME's residence," the CBI added.