Ranchi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested coal businessman Izhar Ansari, accused of rigging coal linkage worth Rs 70 crore, on Tuesday evening. Despite being summoned, he was not appearing before the ED for questioning. ED raided Izhar’s residence and factory in Hazaribagh at around 7:00 in the morning and took him into custody. The ED team also raided the house of his close relative Ishtiaq in Ramgarh, however, he was not found at home. The ED team brought Izhar to Ranchi. After interrogation here, he was arrested at eight o’clock in the night. On Wednesday he will be produced in the court of the special judge of PMLA.
According to the information, ED had seized the mobile phone of CA Suman Kumar during the raid regarding MNREGA scam. On the basis of the details obtained from this mobile phone, ED had raided Izhar Ansari’s house in March 2023. During that time, Rs 3.85 crore in cash was seized from his house. In fact, details of the transactions done with Izhaar were also recorded in Suman’s mobile phone. ED investigation found that after calculating the amount of commission for the coal received in the linkage, Izhar had informed CA Suman about the payment on his mobile phone.
As soon as Suman joined, all 13 companies started getting coal linkage.
Izhaar had formed 13 companies. He himself was the director of most of these, while in some companies, apart from his son Nazir, he had made his close relatives Ishtiaq and Tajmul as directors. The investigation found that on the recommendation of the Mines Department, in the year 2019, nine companies of Izhar got coal linkage of 14072.70 MT, whereas in 2020-21, only three companies got coal linkage. After coming in contact with CA Suman, all the 13 companies of Izhaar got coal linkage worth Rs 22009.08 HT.
On his initiative, the officials of the Mines Department had recommended the coal companies to give coal linkage to Izhar’s companies. While investigating the documents related to Izhar’s companies, ED found that he had lifted coal worth more than Rs 70 crore and did black marketing through linkage with CCL and BCCL. During investigation of the vehicle numbers registered in his cell register, the case of transportation of coal by motorcycles, mopeds and other two-wheelers came to light. In the register of expression, it is mentioned that 25-25 MT of coal is being carried on motorcycles and mopeds.
ED has registered a new FIR in the case of illegal coal business: ED has arrested Izhar on the basis of irregularities found during the investigation of the new FIR registered in connection with the illegal business of coal. ED registered the FIR (10/2019) registered in 2019 at Mandu police station as IIR (RNZO/34/230). This FIR was registered against Syed Salmani, the driver of the truck (JH02AR-6640) at Mandu police station. In the FIR, the truck driver was described as a resident of Mughalsarai police station area of ​​Chandauli district of Uttar Pradesh. The name of the owner of the truck is Izhar Ansari alias Tunnu Malik and address is Millat Colony, Pelawal Road, Hazaribagh.
When caught by the police, the driver admitted to going to Banaras with 19 tonnes of coal from Topa Colliery. In the challan found with the truck driver, there was mention of taking coal from the colliery to Om Coke in Ramgarh. Izhar’s relative Ishtiaq Ahmed and a person named Manzoor Hasan have a partnership in a company named Om Coke. But, on the instructions of Izhar, the truck driver was going to Banaras Mandi with this coal to sell it. During investigation, it was confirmed from the challan and Form-D presented by the driver that the coal was to be taken from Topa Colliery of CCL to Om Kok.
Coal traders Sanju Sao, Deepak Sao, Mohd Aslam and Rizwan were also driving behind this truck. But they ran away fearing the police. After investigating the case, on July 30, 2020, the police filed a charge sheet against Izhar Ansari, Ishtiaq, Sanju Sao, Deepak San, Mo Aslam and others under sections 420, 120B, 468, 469, 471 and Coal Mines Act.