ED to file money laundering case in UP sand mining

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will soon file a money laundering case against officials and politicians in Uttar Pradesh, based on a CBI case in connection with its ongoing probe into illegal sand mining, informed sources said.

They said the agency will soon file a case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against some bureaucrats and politicians mentioned in the CBI FIR.

The development comes days after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case on January 2 against 11 people including a few known and some unknown public servants and and others under the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The agency has named IAS officer B. Chandrakala, a former Hamirpur District Magistrate, miner Adil Khan, geologist/mining officer Moinuddin, Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Ramesh Kumar Mishra, his brother Dinesh Kumar Mishra, Ram Ashray Prajapati, a former clerk in the Mining Department in Hamirpur, Sanajy Dikshit, who contested the 2017 Assembly polls on Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket, his father Satyadeo Dikshit, and Ram Avtar Singh, a former clerk in the Mining Department.

According to the CBI officials, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh granted lease of mines to 14 people in 2013 in Hamirpur district against the Allahabad High Court orders which had ratified the e-tender policy.

On January 7, the CBI released a list of 22 leases cleared by Akhilesh Yadav, who was also the Mining Minister during the period, and Gayatri Prasad Prajapati, who succeeded Yadav as the Mining Minister.

--IANS

aks/vsc/mr