Calcutta HC fines Presidency jail superintendent for helping coal scam accused

The Calcutta high court has fined the superintendent of Kolkata’s Presidency correctional home for giving special treatment to letting Vikash Mishra, a key accused in the coal smuggling case.

A division bench of justices Joymalya Bagchi and Ajay Kumar Gupta on Thursday directed jail superintendent Debasish Chakraborty to deposit ₹2000 within 48 hours, failing to he will jailed for one week.

The court held that Chakraborty allowed Vikash Mishra, a key accused in the coal smuggling case, to stay at the city’s SSKM hospital in August 2022 even though he was supposed to be taken into judicial custody from the hospital after doctors deployed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) found him fit.

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“The superintendent has wilfully and deliberately disobeyed the court order,” the bench held.

Accused Vikash is the younger brother of former Trinamool Congress (TMC) youth wing general secretary Vinay Mishra who is also a prime accused in coal smuggling and is believed to be living in Vanuatu, an island nation in the south Pacific.

Declared an absconder by the CBI, Vinay Mishra informed the Calcutta high court through his lawyers in 2021 that he relinquished Indian citizenship in November 2020.

The bench held Chakraborty guilty of contempt of court although, Kishore Dutta, the counsel for the state, argued that he did not do anything deliberately, said lawyers who were present during the hearing. The case against Chakraborty was filed by CBI.

Not accepting the apology Chakraborty offered, justice Bagchi admonished the officer.

“How can a superintendent who breaks the law show the right path to the jailed inmates? It is unfortunate that an officer of his rank has done such a thing,” the judge observed.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is conducting a parallel probe into the coal smuggling operation, arrested Vikas in Delhi in March 2021 and attached his property.

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In August 2021, the ED filed its first chargesheet in the coal smuggling case at a special court in Delhi and named Vikas and the former officer-in-charge of Bankura police station, Ashok Mishra.

It is alleged that illegally mined coal, worth several thousand crores of rupees, has been sold in the black market over several years by a racket operating in the western parts of Bengal where the Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) runs several mines.

TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, his wife and her relatives have been questioned by the ED and CBI in connection to the case.