Imported metallurgical coke weighing around 8,500 tonnes and valued over Rs.13 crore belonging to the State Trading Corporation of India (STC) is missing from a stockyard in Srikakulam where it was kept for safe custody.
It is just not the disappearance of such a large quantity of the steel raw material, but the suspicion against officials of a company for which STC had imported the coke that has turned the spotlight on the case.
STC Deputy General Manager (Marketing) N.Sarat Babu, in a police complaint, mentioned the names of a few officials of Dankuni Steels Ltd (DSL) as suspects. According to him, STC, after an agreement in December 2013, imported 34,650 tonnes of metallurgical coke for DSL. The material was kept in a stockyard on the DSL factory premises in Amadalavalasa mandal, Srikakulam, under the custody of Origo Commodities India Pvt Ltd, which included round the clock security of the stock. DSL was required to pay full amount by March 25 last year but had not done so. An amount of Rs.16.50 crore was due against which a little over 13,750 tonnes of coke was lying in the stockyard. When STC presented cheques given by DSL, they were not honoured. Subsequently, STC filed a case under the Negotiable Instruments Act in a court in Kolkata against Sanjay Kumar Surekha, Arvind Kumar Dalmia and Anil Kumar Kedia of DSL. It also issued a tender notice on January 2 this year for risk sale of the metallurgical coke for recovery of the dues. The tender is open till February 2.
It was in this backdrop that the STC received communication last week from Origo Commodities that there had been unauthorised removal of the coke stock from the stockyard on January 15-16 midnight. The security guard was forcibly removed from the premises, the communication said. In his complaint, based on which the police registered an FIR, Mr.Babu suspected the three persons as also local plant officials of DSL to be behind the theft.
