New Delhi,  The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday arrested the then General Manager of Eastern Coalfields Ltd in an on-going investigation of a case, officials said.

They said that the accused GM, identified as Subhas Kumar Mukhopadhyay, had allegedly obtained undue advantage in the form of regular cash amount as bribe from a private person and facilitated misappropriation of coal from ECL leasehold area and corresponding railway siding.

"Thereby, the accused extended undue protection and patronage to the illegal coal syndicate being run by the said private person," the officials said.

According to the CBI, the said case was registered in November 2020 on the allegations that the public servants of ECL including security personnel, private persons, and unknown officials including of the CISF, Railways, other departments and unknown others entered into conspiracy during May 2020 and onwards and in pursuance of the said conspiracy, they fraudulently misappropriated coal from the coal reserve of leasehold areas under the dominion of ECL and also from the coal stock parked in the railway sidings for sale and supply.

Earlier, the CBI had also conducted searches at various places including in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, and UP etc. at the premises of accused persons.

The arrested accused will be produced on Saturday before the special court at West Bengal's Asansol.