Nagpur: Officials of a Mumbai-based private entity allegedly defrauded Western Coalfields Limited (WCL) of Rs32 crore by manipulating samples and fabricating laboratory reports for coal supplied from WCL mines to power plants and industries.As per the complainant lodged by manager (Mining) at WCL, Avichal Sharma, manager (operations) of the Mumbai-based company, and Shiv Pujan Singh (operations head) of a Uttar Pradesh-based company allegedly colluded in the scam.The complainant stated the incident relates to activities around April this year, with operations linked to Nagpur headquarters and to the WCL mines. Instead of sending the entire collected coal samples for lab test, they allegedly sent only small quantities. The laboratory reports were allegedly fabricated and manipulated to show lower quality than the actual grade.The complainant stated that the downgraded quality reports led to wrongful financial adjustments and losses totaling Rs32 crore across multiple WCL mines.A case was registered at Gittikhadan police station on April 30. Police are examining records of sample collections, laboratory reports, and financial transactions.
