2 min readBhubaneswarJan 31, 2026 05:39 PM IST
The CBI has booked its own assistant sub-inspector (ASI), who is posted in Bhubaneswar, for allegedly running a “protection and extortion” syndicate in the coal-bearing areas of Odisha.
The agency’s New Delhi office has registered a case under charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, obtaining of bribes by a public servant and bribing a public servant by a private person.
The accused ASI was identified as Prashanta Kumar Pallei. The CBI also booked Sarada Prasad Sethy, posted as the dispatch officer with the Mahanadi Coalfields Limited, a subsidiary of Coal India Limited.
As per the CBI’s FIR registered on January 28, Sethy allegedly collected bribe money from different transporters and coal lifters in return for favouring them by way of either dispatching an extra load of coal or providing them with high-grade coal by passing it off as low-grade.
Sethy was allegedly running the racket by paying protection money to the CBI ASI, the FIR said.
The CBI ASI allegedly took bribes from Sethy on a regular basis on the pretext of protecting him from the clutches of agencies, including the CBI, as well as for extending other favours, the FIR said. It also alleged that Pallei has ensured the posting of Sethy in his present location at the Garjanbahal open cast project in Basundhara Area by threatening the general manager concerned.
The CBI ASI is alleged to have collected protection money by using bank accounts of family members, such as his wife and son, CBI sources said. The agency’s officials said there was evidence of multiple transactions between June and September 2025.
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As per prima facie inquiry, the agency also found that the accused ASI asked Sethy to dig up any faults of senior officials from other projects and to reveal information about other big contractors and coal-lifters operating in the area, “allegedly to trap them and to collect money from them,” officials said.
