Bhubaneswar: A team of Special Task Force (STF) sleuths Wednesday arrested five persons for alleged involvement in illegal transportation and storage of stolen hard coke, Ferrochrome and iron pellets in Dhenkanal town.
Acting on a tip-off, the officials conducted simultaneous raids at different places in Dhenkanal town. During the raids, the team seized 230 tons of stolen hard coke, 45 tons of steam coke, five tons of Ferrochrome, three tons of iron pellets and seven tons of iron rods. These apart, four 14-wheeler trucks loaded with steam coke and iron pellets, two JCB machines, one 10-wheeler Hyva truck and other incriminating articles were also seized.
In this connection, five persons were arrested after they failed to produce any valid authorisation in support of transportation and storage of such huge quantity of stolen hard coke, steam coke, Charge Chrome and iron pellets.
In this connection, a case (STF PS Case No. 20/ 2021 U/s 379/411/413/120(B)/34 of IPC) was registered and a detailed investigation is underway.
This year, the STF has so far seized 262 tons of hard coke, 216 MT of Ferrochrome, 150 tons of coal, 23 heavy vehicles, JCB machines and Hyva trucks. And, a total of 28 persons have so far been arrested.
PNN