The CBI on Thursday arrested a general manager (GM) of the Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) and a civil contractor in the multi-crore coal-smuggling case being probed by the central agency since 2020.

Sources in the agency said GM Naresh Chandra Saha and contractor Aswini Kumar Yadav had been summoned by the CBI to Nizam Palace in Calcutta on Thursday for questioning. They were arrested after a day-long interrogation.

The two were produced in the special CBI court in Asansol on Friday and remanded in CBI custody till Monday.

Sources said the CBI told the court that Saha had taken advantage of alleged coal smuggler Anup Maji aka Lala — prime accused in the case — several times against helping him to smuggle coal from the ECL-owned mines in Asansol.

The CBI also told the court that Yadav was directly involved in the coal smuggling. The agency pleaded that Saha and Yadav be remanded in CBI custody for four days.

After hearing the counsels of the accused and the agency, the court sent the duo to CBI custody.

Maji is out on bail on certain conditions.

Earlier, the CBI had arrested eight working and retired ECL employees, including four general managers, in the case. All of them are out on bail now.

The CBI is likely to submit the final charge-sheet in the case to the court on July 3 following a court directive. Sources said the names of 34 persons had already been mentioned in the primary charge-sheet submitted last year.