Ranchi: Nand Kishore Patodia, an accused in the Usha Martin mining scam, surrendered in the Special CBI Court in Ranchi. Following his surrender, the court granted him conditional bail. He was granted bail on the condition of submitting two personal bonds of ₹25,000 each and depositing his passport with the court. Patodia is accused of corruption related to the allocation of mining rights to Usha Martin in 2005.
In 2005, Usha Martin was allocated an iron ore mine in Ghatskuri, West Singhbhum district, which allegedly involved corruption. At that time, IAS officer Arun Kumar Singh was the Secretary of the Mining Department, and Indradev Paswan was the Director of Mining.
According to the CBI, Patodia was also involved in this scam. The CBI’s Delhi unit registered an FIR under sections related to criminal conspiracy, cheating, and the Prevention of Corruption Act in case 220/2016. The FIR named the promoters of Usha Martin and officials of the mining department as accused. The FIR stated that the officials of the state government allegedly showed favoritism towards Usha Martin in their recommendation for the allocation of the mine to the central government.
The company allegedly promised to use the iron ore in its steel plant located in Hat Gamharia and even provided an undertaking to the state government. However, the CBI has alleged that the company later denied this, claiming that no specific mention of it was made in the Cabinet note.