UP illegal sand mining: ED summons 4, including IAS officer, SP MLC

Initiating fresh action, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued summons to four people, including IAS officer B Chandrakala and a Samajwadi Party (SP) leader, in connection with an alleged illegal mining case in Uttar Pradesh, official sources said on Friday.

The central probe agency had filed a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after taking cognisance of a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR filed to probe illegal mining instances in the Hamirpur area between 2012 and 2016.

The CBI has said it is probing the role of former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav in the case as he had held the mining portfolio during this period.

The sources said Chandrakala and SP MLC Ramesh Kumar Mishra had been summoned by the ED to appear before the investigating officer of the case in Lucknow next week.

Two more officials were similarly summoned under the PMLA, they added.

The ED is probing the money trail and whether the alleged illegal funds received as kickbacks in these cases were laundered by the accused.

It will also look for assets, both immovable and movable, of the accused that can be attached under the anti-money laundering law.

The CBI had carried out searches at 14 locations earlier this month in connection with its FIR against 11 people, including Chandrakala, Mishra and Sanjay Dixit (who had unsuccessfully contested the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls on a BSP ticket), to probe the alleged illegal mining of minor minerals in Hamirpur district during 2012-16.

The role of the then mining ministers during the said period might be looked into during the course of the investigation, the CBI FIR had said.

Yadav, who was the chief minister of the state between 2012 and 2017, held the mining portfolio during 2012-13, apparently bringing his role under the scanner, according to the FIR.

He was succeeded by Gayatri Prajapati, who took charge as the mining minister in 2013 and was arrested in 2017 following a complaint of rape by a woman residing in Chitrakoot.

Others named in the CBI FIR include SP MLC Mishra's brother Dinesh Kumar Mishra, Ram Ashrey Prajapati (then a mining clerk), Ambika Tiwari, Sanjay Dixit's father Satyadev Dixit, Ram Avtar Singh (a retired mining clerk), Karan Singh (a lease holder) and Adil Khan, an alleged illegal excavator.