The biggest ever seizure in an income- tax raid, amounting to Rs 70.76 crore, is made in Dhanbad. An account is hacked and Rs 21 crore sought to be transferred online to a branch in Muzaffarpur. An account is frozen after a deposit of Rs 29 crore is made in Ghaziabad.
Three incidents, on different days, in three different cities, with one thing in common — all involve Bharat Coking Coal Ltd.
And, according to income-tax additional commissioner (Investigation) Ajit Kumar Srivastava, all of them may be linked.
At the centre of this alleged scam that unfolded following a tip-off received by the I-T department from the centre's Financial Intelligence Unit is an unassuming 34-year-old and his meteoric rise from being the son of a Class III employee of BCCL to its youngest contractor, supplying the government subsidiary that produces the bulk of the coking coal mined in the country everything from electrical wires and bulbs to cement and sand.
I-T officials estimate L B Singh alias Lal Babu has cash deposits of over Rs 111 crore.
The seizure of his 11 accounts on November 25 yielded Rs 70.76 crore. The father of two sons who still lives in the small BCCL
quarters allotted to father Ramdev Singh at Kastaur colliery in Dhanbad also owns a fleet of cars and SUVs. Lal Babu grew up here along with six siblings — five brothers and a sister.
Having dropped out after matriculation, Lal Babu's rise to riches, officials say, began with his association with two BCCL general managers, D C Jha and S P Singh, as well as BJP Jharia MLA Kunti Singh. The latter is the widow of the late coal mafia don Surya Dev Singh.
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