CBI registers 2 separate FIRs in illegal sand mining case

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered two separate FIRs related to an alleged case of illegal sand mining in Uttar Pradesh.

One FIR has been registered against Abhay, the former District Magistrate of Fatehpur (Uttar Pradesh), and former mining minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati, among others.

Another FIR has been registered against Vivek, former District Magistrate, Deoria (Uttar Pradesh) and eight others including the former Additional District Magistrate, Deoria (U.P.) and three public servants.

The CBI had on Wednesday conducted raids at multiple locations across the state in connection with the cases, according to sources.

Raids were conducted at 12 locations, including Bulandshahr, Lucknow, Fatehpur, Azamgarh, Allahabad, Noida, Gorakhpur and Deoria.

The agency recovered cash worth Rs 47 lakh from the residence of Bulandshahr District Magistrate Abhay Kumar Singh, Rs 10 lakh from Chief Development Officer Devi Sharan Upadhyay's residence and some documents related to properties from the premises of Director of Training and Employment, Vivek.

Even though there was no official comment on the raid, CBI sources said a huge amount of cash was recovered by the agency from Abhay's residence.

The search went on for over two hours, sources said, adding that a machine to count notes was taken inside Abhay's house by the CBI officials.

In the illegal mining scam, CBI had filed an FIR earlier this year, in which names of several bureaucrats and politicians had come up.

According to sources, when the purported scam took place, Abhay was the District Magistrate at Fatehpur district and Upadhyay and Vivek were the Additional District Magistrate and District Magistrate of Deoria city in Uttar Pradesh, respectively.