The Enforcement Directorate has registered a money laundering case in connection with the alleged illegal mining of minor minerals in Uttar Pradesh’s Hamirpur district between 2012 and 2016.
The action has been initiated on the basis of an FIR recently lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation on the direction of the Allahabad High Court.
“The case has been registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act to probe the money trail involved in the alleged commission of offence,” said an ED official.
The CBI had earlier said that the role of mining Ministers in Uttar Pradesh between 2012 and 2016, who include Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, would also be probed. However, their names had not been mentioned in the FIR.
Mr. Yadav, the then Chief Minister, held the additional portfolio of the Mining Ministry in 2012-13.
He, according to the CBI, had approved 14 mining leases in Hamirpur allegedly in violation of his own government’s e-tendering policy and an Allahabad High Court directive. As alleged, 13 of these leases were given on a single day, February 17, 2013, soon after the High Court order came on January 29 the same year.
Official named
In the FIR, the CBI has named 2008 batch IAS official and then Hamirpur District Magistrate B. Chandralekha; Samajwadi Party’s Member of Legislative Council Ramesh Kumar Mishra; Sanjay Dixit, who had fought election in 2017 on the Bahujan Samaj Party ticket; and eight others.
‘Obstructed period’
It has been alleged that the public servants allowed illegal mining of minor minerals between 2012 and 2016 by fraudulently granting fresh or renewed leases. They also allegedly permitted mining by the existing lease-owners during the “obstructed period” when the National Green Tribunal had barred the activity. The leases were also issued in violation of a May 2012 order of the State government for e-tendering.
Some accused persons also stole minor minerals, and extorted money from lease holders and drivers of the vehicles transporting minor minerals.
