Bid to tamper with coal samples at Rupnagar Thermal Plant causes flutter in PSPCL circles, four held
Bahadurjeet Singh/Rupnagar,April 27,2024
The alleged attempt to tamper with the coal samples kept at coal testing lab of Guru Gobind Singh Super Thermal Plant, Rupnagar has caused flutter in the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited(PSPCL) circles even as the police have arrested four accused in the case.
According to information the incident reportedly took place on the night of March 17.The coal lab staff found all the locks of main door and strong room in broken condition on the morning of March 18 and later on in the presence of police officials and PSPCL officials ,all the three locks of the almirah containing 16 samples were also found in broken condition. These 16 challenged referee samples belonging to M/s Monnet Daniels Coal Washeries Limited (MDCWL), the company which supply washed coal to thermal plant, were kept in joint custody in locked almirah in strong room at the coal testing lab of the thermal plant for onward submission to independent coal testing lab CSIR-Dhanbad. Attempt was made to tamper with these 16 samples. Other refree samples in the almirah were not disturbed. Locks of adjoining almirah were also found broken.
It may be mentioned that coal samples locked jointly in coal testing lab were of great significance and huge financial stakes (in crores) were involved on the test results of these samples.
The accused took away CPU containing CCTV recording and one CCTV camera with alleged intention to misplace the records of testing of samples and CCTV recording of accused.
After around 4 days of the incident, Ropar police on April 22,2024 registered a case under section 457 (If someone commits lurking house-trespass or house-breaking at night with the intention of committing any punishable offense) and 380 (Whoever commits theft in any building, tent or vessel, which building, tent or vessel is used as a human dwelling, or used for the custody of property) of IPC at Rupnagar Sadar police station in this regard on the complaint of chief chemist of the thermal plant.
The police swung in to action only after one month of the registration of case and arrested four accused now namely Arvind, an employee of QSS company which was hired by M/s MDCWL for coal sampling and analyzing at the thermal plant, Pushpender,Piyush Kumar and Varun Singh.
Meanwhile, sources maintained that some officials of the thermal plant are also involved in the matter as such an incident could not have taken place without their connivance.
However, Police post Ghanuali in-charge Kamal Kishore ruled out the involvement of any thermal plant official.
Bid to tamper with coal samples at Rupnagar Thermal Plant causes flutter in PSPCL circles, four held. When contacted Thermal Plant Chief Engineer HK Sharma said that police were investigating the case. He would be able to tell anything regarding the matter after receiving the detailed information from the police. He said that as per his information an outsource employee working with contractor is also an accused in the case.
