JSPL slips nearly 6% as CBI launches probe for mining in Saranda forests

NEW DELHI: Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL) slipped nearly as much as 5.6 per cent in trade on Monday, after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has begun a probe into how Congress leader Naveen Jindal's company got permission from the environment ministry under Jayanti Natarajan in 2013 to mine iron ore in Asia's largest sal forest in the Naxal-affected Saranda area of Jharkhand.

At 09:20 a.m.; JSPL was trading 4.2 per cent lower at Rs 158.75. It hit a low of Rs 156.35 and a high of Rs 160.10 in trade today.

However, JSPL in a statement mailed to IANS, said it would respond to the CBI's preliminary enquiry (PE) registered Friday over the company's alleged diversion of forest land.

Responding to an ET query a JSPL spokesperson said "we have only come to know of the preliminary enquiry through media reports."

"JSPL reiterates that we have always co-operated with the investigative agencies and will respond when we receive these queries from the investigative authorities," added the report.

Sources told ET the JSPL project in the Saranda forests was taken up for discussion in the Cabinet Committee on Investments and cleared in May 2013.

The project was cleared by the CCI, the sources maintained. CBI sources said the Forest Advisory Committee in 2011 had considered JSPL's mining project but noted that the forest of Saranda is part of the core area of the Singhbhum reserve, one of the finest habitats for elephants, added the ET report.