At least 9 loaded trucks detained at depot along border
GUWAHATI: The criminal investigation department (CID) of Assam Police has arrested the father-son duo for allegedly operating a coal depot without valid documents and detained at least coal-laden nine trucks at Byrnihat along the Assam-Meghalaya border.
The accused, Om Prakash Sharma (59), the owner of the coal depot, and his son, Pankaj Sharma (25), residents of Amgak, Byrnihat (16th Mile area in Meghalaya), were arrested on Friday evening.
“The two were arrested for operating the depot illegally and transportation of coal without valid documents. The arrest was made on the basis of a statement of the driver of a coal-laden truck seized during checking at Koinadhara along the Assam-Meghalaya border on October 29 last,” deputy superintendent of police, CID, Assam police, Deba Dutta told The Shillong Times here on Saturday afternoon.
“They will be produced before the chief judicial magistrate’s court here later this afternoon,” Dutta said.
The truck, bearing registration number, AS 01 JC 9077), is in the custody of Assam CID.
“We have meanwhile detained at least nine coal-laden trucks (all loaded in the same depot) at Byrnihat which will be subsequently seized.
A team belonging to the weights and measures department would visit the depot to make an estimate of the quantity of coal detained at the site,” he said.
It may be mentioned that this is the second major coal seizure along the inter-state border by the Assam CID this year. As many as 12 coal-laden trucks were seized by the CID, Assam police, along the border in January this year.
The department has since tightened the noose on illegal coal depots along the inter-state border. A team, led by Dutta, was constituted by the department to verify the legality of coal depots in Byrnihat.
The CID team had earlier this year found abandoned coal depots near Byrnihat and some coal traders absconding, apparently in a bid to avoid verification.
Sources said that illegally transported coal from Meghalaya is dumped in depots in Byrnihat and subsequently taken to West Bengal and Bihar via Assam.