Anup Majhi alias Lala, one of the prime accused in the multi-crore coal pilferage case, appeared before the CBI for questioning on Tuesday, riding a recent Supreme Court order restraining the central agency from arresting him till April 6.

A division bench of the Supreme Court, while passing the order recently, had instructed Majhi to cooperate with the agency in its probe in the coal pilferage case.

Armed with the apex court’s order, Majhi turned up in the CBI’s office at Nizam Palace in Calcutta — with two lawyers in tow — around 11am to face a team of interrogators from the CBI, which has been on his lookout for several months.

Sources said the CBI had questioned Majhi about the beneficiaries of the alleged pilferage of coal, which was apparently carried out with the help of a few officials of the Eastern Coalfields Limited in Bengal’s coal belt in Asansol.

The CBI apparently wanted to know from Majhi the extent of his reach across districts in Bengal and even beyond and who active players in the pilferage of coal were.

Apart from issuing lookout notices against Majhi, the central agency has raided Majhi’s office, residences and other properties in Asansol, Raniganj and Calcutta.

On Tuesday, the CBI said Majhi evaded several questions leaving the interrogators looking for another engagement with him over the next few days.

“We will want to question him further in this case,” said a CBI officer. “Hopefully, he will respond to our appeal.”

The CBI, which has been probing into the case since November last year, is of the opinion that Majhi has masterminded the pilferage of coal from some of the abandoned quarries in and around Asansol and Raniganj coal belts and the amount involved is several hundreds of crores of rupees.

The central investigating agency is of the opinion that a part of this money had moved out of India to bank accounts abroad.

The Enforcement Directorate is probing into this alleged money laundering in this case.

In Bengal, the CID has started a parallel probe into the coal pilferage and made the first arrest — Randhir Singh — from West Burdwan district on March 13.

Singh is said to have been involved in this case and is believed to have been working for Majhi, according to CID officers.