Kolkata, Jan 13 (IANS) The Calcutta High Court on Monday granted bail to one of the prime accused in the multi-crore coal smuggling case in West Bengal, Vikas Mishra, in a POCSO-related case.
Vikas's brother and former youth Trinamool Congress leader Vinay Mishra, another prime accused in the coal smuggling case, is currently absconding and is believed to have taken shelter in Vanuatu Islands by taking citizenship there after surrendering his Indian citizenship.
In fact, the Kolkata Police registered the POCSO case against Vikas based on a complaint filed by Vinay's wife. The Kolkata Police had earlier also arrested him.
Vikas approached the Calcutta High Court seeking bail in the POCSO case.
On Monday, as the matter came up for hearing at the division bench, Justice Arijit Bandopadhyay and Justice Apurba Sinha Roy.
"This is a simple case of a family feud, where my client had been falsely implicated. Although he was arrested based on a complaint filed at Kalighat Police Station, the police have failed to provide substantiated evidence against my client," Vikas' counsel argued in court on Monday.
On December 10 last year, the process of framing of charges in the coal smuggling case in West Bengal was completed at a special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at Asansol in West Burdwan district of West Bengal.
The 49 individuals against whom the process of framing of charge has been completed include top officials of Eastern Coalfields Limited, a subsidiary of Coal India Limited.
Arup Majhi a.k.a. Lala, who is currently released on bail, is another prime accused in the case.
Besides the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is conducting a parallel probe in the coal smuggling case.
