NIA wrongly names businessman in its list of most wanted

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) was left red-faced just lately when it launched the title and {photograph} of a businessman, Mahesh Agarwal of Adhunik Group, which runs coal and metal crops, in its checklist of most wished.

And so, for nearly 9 months, the businessman whose corporations do enterprise in hundreds of crores appeared within the “most wanted” part of the NIA’s web site, often reserved for international terrorists resembling Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, their native cadres, and others accused of heinous crimes towards the nation.

The company needed to take down Agarwal’s title from the part final month after the Jharkhand excessive court docket, earlier this yr, requested it to not take any coercive motion towards him.

Agarwal, managing director of Adhunik Power and Natural Resources Limited (APNRL), which runs a coal based mostly transmission energy unit in Jharkhand, was arraigned as an accused by NIA in a cost sheet filed on January 10 this yr for allegedly funding the actions of a Maoist-backed group Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC).

The case, which dates again to 2016, pertains to extortion by Naxal teams from businessmen, transporters and contractors within the coal-rich areas of Bihar and Jharkhand. TPC, a Maoist organisation was receiving cash within the names of its chief,in keeping with the cost sheet, a duplicate of which has been reviewed by HT.

The company alleged in its supplementary cost sheet towards Agarwal that on his course, cost of Rs 200 per metric ton of coal was made to coal transporters towards work orders for the aim of paying to TPC operatives and village committees for clean functioning of his enterprise.

On the idea of the cost sheet, a Special NIA court docket in Ranchi issued a non-bailable warrant towards Agarwal on January 17 after which NIA put his title and {photograph} in essentially the most wished checklist on its web site.

Agarwal’s lawyer Nitesh Rana filed an interlocutory utility within the Jharkhand HC that by placing his title in most wished checklist, the NIA broken his fame. Rana mentioned: “My client has been falsely implicated in the case. He was an NIA witness till last year. In fact, the agency approached Special court in Ranchi in March 2019 for recording his statement under section 164 of CrPC as a witness. However, all of sudden, he was arraigned as an accused this year despite the fact that his name was not there in the FIR.”

Rana mentioned that they’d challenged the cost sheet however the company nonetheless went forward and included his title in its most wished checklist. And there it stayed.

NIA officer, Subodh Sharma, mentioned in an affidavit filed earlier than the HC on November three that the company eliminated Agarwal’s title from the checklist on October 21. The company, nonetheless, defended its costs towards Agarwal. NIA officers declined remark.