Jharkhand: CBI court convicts four in Bihar-Jharkhand bitumen scam

A special CBI court in Ranchi convicted four individuals, including the primary transporter Vinay Kumar Sinha and three others—Ashish Maitey, Raj Kumar Roy, and Ranjan Pradhan—for their roles in the bitumen scam. They received three-year prison terms and fines of ₹9 lakh each. Three former officials (SK Das, SM Aurangzeb, and NC Prasad) were acquitted for lack of evidence. The case (RC-12(A)/1997-D) also highlighted discrepancies in three supply orders: Order 3500 (491 MT uplifted; 431 MT delivered), Order 3203 (195.45 MT uplifted; 146 MT delivered), and Order 4796 (541 MT uplifted; 505 MT delivered). The transporter allegedly diverted bitumen to the open market and forged documents to claim false carriage charges from the state exchequer. Two other accused—Md Ishhaq and BP Gupta—died during the trial, leading to abatement for them. The advocate noted the primary misappropriation in RC-12(A)/1997-D as about ₹18.50 lakh to ₹27.60 lakh; the broader scam is estimated to have siphoned off nearly ₹200 crore from the undivided Bihar exchequer.

The case dates back to 1997 and centers on fraudulent misappropriation of bitumen meant for a national highway at Barhi. The investigation focused on three supply orders from Haldia refinery involving Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL).