UP illegal sand mining: ED registers 2 more cases

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday said it has registered two more cases of money laundering in its ongoing probe into the illegal sand mining cases in Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi and Shamli districts.

The cases were registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against several officials and private persons, a senior ED official told IANS.

The development comes a week after the financial probe agency filed a case based on a First Information Report (FIR) by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the role of bureaucrats and politicians in Hamirpur district.

In the Hamirpur case, the ED had named then District Magistrate IAS officer B. Chandrakala and 10 others.

On January 18, the ED had summoned Chandrakala for questioning on January 24 at its Lucknow office at 11 a.m. "But Chandrakala has not joined the probe yet," an ED official said.

The CBI had registered separate cases into the alleged irregularities in granting of licences between 2012 and 2016, in violation of the Allahabad High Court order which had ratified an e-tender policy in Kaushambi and Shamli districts in 2018.

The then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had granted the mine's leases to 14 people in 2013 in Hamirpur district against the High Court's order.

--IANS

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