A major racket involving smuggling of various finished products from Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited’s Visakhapatnam Steel Plant was unearthed on Monday.
The seizure of a brand new truck-sleeper near the BC gate of the steel plant by the CISF personnel created a sensation.
The weighing of the materials laden in the vehicle is yet to be done. The driver and the cleaner of the lorry were missing.
“The lorry came for unloading some goods on the plant premises and later proceeded to the area for internal shifting of material (ISM), where no papers are required. Our surveillance team kept an eye and found it abandoned for a long time.
Later it was seized and we are in the process of filing a police report,” CISF VSP unit Commandant Digvijay Singh told The Hindu .
While VSP union leaders said the lorry was carrying around 80 tonnes of 20 mm round, 16 and 32 mm re-bars costing around Rs.40 lakh, CISF sources said they were expecting the weight to be around 21 tonnes.
The vehicle displayed registration number of AP04W 6804. It was found pasted on another number AP 31 TD 1545. It also carried another temporary number 19TC 02012.
Sources said as per rules of RINL, a lorry should carry only one type of particular material. But in this case, three types of material were found.
Meanwhile, Visakha Steel Employees’ Union honorary president Padi Trinadha Rao and Visakha Steel Employees’ Congress deputy general secretary Neerukonda Ramachandra Rao demanded a CBI probe into ‘regular smuggling’ of VSP products worth crores of rupees.
They said the culprits behind the racket with the tacit understanding of some employees and security personnel could be exposed only when the case was handed over to the CBI.
All India Consumer Council member Varasala Srinivasa Rao said smuggling was going on undetected for a long time and demanded immediate action.
