The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has summoned Samajwadi Party supremo and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav for recording his witness statement on Thursday in connection with an illegal minor mineral mining case registered in January 2019, an agency official said on Wednesday.
Mr. Yadav and his former colleague Gayatri Prajapati had held the mining portfolio in the State during the check period.
The CBI had registered the case following a directive from the Allahabad High Court. Among those named in the case were the then Hamirpur District Magistrate B. Chandrakala, Mining Officer Moinuddin and Mining Clerk Ram Ashrey Prajapati; leaseholders Ramesh Kumar Mishra, Dinesh Kumar Mishra, Ambika Tiwari, Sanjay Dixit, Satyadev Dixit, Ramavtar Singh, and Karan Singh, and excavator Adil Khan.
Between 2012 and 2016, it is alleged that the public servants had allowed illegal mining of minor minerals in Hamirpur. They illegally gave fresh leases for mining of sand, renewed the existing leases and also permitted “obstructed period” to the existing leaseholders. Unauthorised persons excavated and stole minor minerals, and extorted money from the leaseholders and from the mineral-transport vehicle drivers.
Based on the CBI cases alleging illegal mining of minor minerals in different parts of U.P., the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also been conducting a money laundering probe.
