Scam-accused IAS officers sent to police custody

Kolkata: A city court on Thursday sent two IAS officers, one of them retired, to police custody for three days in connection with a Rs 125-crore scam over export of iron ore to a Chinese firm.

The chief metropolitan magistrate of Bankshall Court here granted three days' custody of the two accused to the CID, which is probing the scam, when they were produced before the court.

Additional secretary-ranked Debaditya Chakraborty, who was on compulsory waiting for some time, and R M Jamir, a retired IAS officer, who held senior positions in state PSU West Bengal Essential Commodities Services Corporation (WBECSC), were called to the CID headquarters yesterday and arrested.

It was alleged that Jamir and Chakraborty, during their tenure as director general and managing director respectively of the WBECSC, had caused a loss of Rs 125 crore in connection with the export of iron ore to a Chinese firm in a joint venture with a private company here.

Though the fiasco took place in 2004-05, action against the officers was taken only now, though a few other lower-ranked officials of the private firm and WBECSC were earlier arrested by the Kolkata Police in connection with the scam.

After the new government took over in West Bengal last year, the case was handed over to the CID, which initiated fresh investigation in mid-2011.