Kolkata, Mar 30 (IANS): The alleged kingpin in West Bengal in the coal smuggling case, Anup Majhi alias Lala, on Tuesday deposed before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for questioning.

According to CBI officials, Majhi arrived at the agency's office here around 11.30 a.m.

He was summoned by the CBI on March 26, a day after the Supreme Court stayed his arrest till April 6.

The action comes in the wake of a case registered in November last year involving alleged illegal coal pilferage.

The CBI last week questioned former Commissioner of Asansol Laxmi Narayan Meena for over three and half hours in connection with the case.

The CBI had registered a case against the alleged kingpin of the pilferage racket, Eastern Coalfield Ltd General Magers Ait Kuma Dhar and Jayesh Chandra Rai, ECL chief of security Tan Das, area security inspector Kunustoria Dhananjay Rai, and SSI and security in-charge Kajora area Debashish Mukherjee last year.

The CBI also recorded the statement of Rujira Banerjee, wife of Trinaool Congress MP and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee and his sister-in-law Menka Gambhir in the last week of February.

The CBI has recently carried out searches at several locations in the state, including at the premises of Ait Agarwal, a close aide of Majhi.

The central agency's actions have turned the heat on poll-bound West Bengal, where the ruling Trinaool Congress and the BJP are engaged in a bitter battle.

Polling to the 294-member West Bengal Assembly will be held in eight phases. On Mach 27 state polled for the first phase with huge turnout.

Rest of the seven phases are scheduled on -- April 1, April 6, April 10, April 17, April 22, April 26 and April 29 -- and the results will be declared on May 2.