IANS reported that the opposition Congress has asked Chhattisgarh's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to proceed under the state's stringent public security law against the Essar group, which is alleged to have provided huge protection money to Maoist rebels.
Mr Nandkumar Patel president of the state Congress told IANS that "I demand that cases be registered against Essar Group owners for handing over massive amounts as protection money to various factions of Maoists."

He called for provisions of the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act to be invoked. He said that "Definitely, the state government must apply CSPSA because it is a very serious issue."

Mr Patel said that the CSPSA, which human right activists call draconian, is one of the tougher laws in the country and exists in the state since 2006. A suspect may be denied bail for months under it.

He added that "If CSPSA can be applied against physician turned rights activist Mr Binayak Sen or tailors in whose shops uniforms akin to those of Maoists were recovered, why can't it be used against Essar."

Mr Ankit Garg, superintendent of police in insurgency hit Dantewada district, told IANS that several Essar officials had been interrogated and notices sent to others to appear for questioning. He said that "The law will catch each and every official who channelized payments to Maoists. The probe is fast heading in a direction in which all those involved in paying anti national elements will be exposed and put behind bars."

The Essar Group is charged with making huge payments to Dantewada based Maoist factions for allowing a 267 kilometers iron ore slurry pipeline, blasted at several places between Dantewada's Kirandul and Andhra Pradesh's port city of Visakhapatnam, to be reopened.

Mr Manish Kedia SVP at Essar Group told IANS that "Essar strongly refutes all these allegations. Essar is fully cooperating with the authorities in the investigation. Essar has been hiring some equipment from the contractor in question. He was also doing miscellaneous work for us, as he has been a contractor for many other companies."

(Sourced from IANS)