Gujarat: Three persons replace 63 tonne high quality coal with dust in Bharuch

SURAT: Three persons were booked on Friday for allegedly replacing 63-tonne high quality coal worth Rs 5 lakh with waste dust during transportation from Hazira to Jhagadia in Bharuch.
According to the police, the accused took two days to cover the 86km distance which can be covered in three hours in normal situations. The fraud complaint comes at a time when coal prices have shot up due to short supply.
Based on a complaint lodged by Yogesh Patel, owner of Ayesha Transport, cops booked the owner of Kiran Transport, Jitu Patel, and two truck drivers — Sanjay Sahu and Rajesh Sahu — for criminal breach of trust under Indian Penal Code in Hazira police station.
Police have detained Sanjay and will arrest him after Covid-19 test. The other two accused are yet to be arrested.
In his FIR, Patel claimed that he has a contract to transport coal from Adani Port in Hazira to different locations and for that he hires trucks from other transporters for bigger orders. On October 3, he hired two trucks from accused Jitu Patel and the drivers collected a total 63.46 metric tonne coal in two trucks from the port. They were supposed to reach UPL Limited plant in Jhagadia on the same day, but reached only on October 5 evening.
Later, the recipients of the consignment informed the supplier that they received only dirt and waste dust and not the quality coal for which they placed order. Soon Patel was informed about the suspected cheating and he approached the police to lodge a complaint.
“It is a case of cheating and the accused replaced the high-quality coal with dirt and waste. It is a matter of investigation that since how long the fraud is continue,” said police.