CCL GM hostage case: Yashwant Sinha surrenders, let off

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha and 18 others on Thursday surrendered before police, a day after the Central Coalfields Limited lodged a complaint against them for allegedly holding its general manager "captive" in its office at Charhi near Hazaribagh in Jharkhand, but they were let off by police due to insufficient evidence.

Sinha and others went to Charhi police station and surrendered in the presence of Sub-Divisional Officer Kumkum Prasad and Additional Superintendent of Police Sudarshan Mandal, police said.

"A probe found that the charges levelled by the CCL management against Sinha and others were not tenable in the court due to insufficient evidence. Additional Superintendent of Police Sudarshan Mandal investigated into the matter," Prasad told PTI.

So Sinha and others were let off, Prasad added.

CCL had on Wednesday filed the FIR against Sinha and 18 others charging them with holding its general manager, Prabhakar Chaki "captive" for six hours on April 10.

The accused had dismissed the allegation as "baseless" and said they would prefer jail to bail as they were on a 'Satyagraha'.

A large number of people including the accused demonstrated in support of their demands, including opening a new coal dump yard to allow villagers of Phusri benefit from coal sale.

The demand was rejected by the GM on the ground that there was already one dump yard at Bahera under the same project, CCL sources said.