National Desk, 28 June: Meghalaya police busted an illegal coke oven plant and arrested four people in connection with it in the West Khasi Hills district.
The arrestees have been identified as Yaman Bansal, Khrawbok Rongrin, Hopeful Nongtdu and Ashish Arya.
Ashish and Yaman are reportedly from Basisthapur in Assam’s Guwahati. On the other hand, Khrawbok and Hopeful are both from East Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya.
Their arrest followed after the Meghalaya High Court had ordered the state police to locate and detain any owners or operators of illicit coke facilities in the state.
All four were presented to the court and later taken into judicial custody.
According to the police, more people are likely to be arrested.
According to a study by (retd) Justice BP Katakey, Coke oven and ferro alloy plants are “flourishing businesses” in the state and many of them are running illegally.
According to the research, there are currently 13 coke oven plants operating in East Jaintia Hills alone while 38 others are not.