CBI raids IAS officer, SP leader, other places over Illegal sand mining; Akhilesh Yadav may be quizzed

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday carried out searches at 14 locations in Uttar Pradesh, including Jalao, Hamirpur, Noida, Lucknow and Kanpur, as well as in Delhi in connection with illegal sand mining case, sources said. Sources added that the roles of all forrmer ministers, including former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav, between 2012 and 2013 will be investigated. Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav was the mining minister during that period. He was also the chief minister from 2012 to 2017.

Another former minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati, who held the portfolio of the mining department, is also likely to be summoned by the CBI in the case, they said. The residences of senior officers, including IAS officer B Chandrakala, who is famous on social media for her anti-corruption crusade, were also raided in connection with the case, the sources said. The investigating agency had taken up the case on the instructions of the Allahabad High Court.

The CBI sources said 11 people, including government officials, are involved in the case. The sources said for a limited period, there was a ban on the mining, however, the government officials allowed mining even during the ban period. Besides Chandrakala, then mining officer Moinuddin, SP MLC Ramesh Mishra and his brother, mining clerk Ram Ashray Prajapati, Ambika Tiwari (Hamirpur), mining clerk Ram Avatar Singh and his relative and former zila pachayat chairman Sanjeev Dixit are accused in the case, according to ANI.

Despite the NGT’s prohibition, the illegal mining continued in the Uttar Pradesh. The CBI had been conducting investigations in seven places. On July 5, 2012, a tender was issued by the UP government, but it wasn’t issued through an e-tender. Therefore, the Allahabad High Court had asked the CBI to begin an investigation into the matter.