The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday carried out raids at multiple locations across three states, including the residence of Abhishek Prasad, Media Advisor to Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, Ramniwas Yadav, an IAS officer and current deputy commissioner of Sahibganj district, among others. Searches were also conducted at the premises of Pappu Yadav a former MLA from Deoghar district.
Sources said that raids were as part of a money laundering probe into alleged illegal mining in the state.
About a dozen locations in the state, including in state capital Ranchi and a premise in Rajasthan, are being raided by the central agency under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.
Further, the premises of Rajendra Dubey, the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) of Hazaribagh city in Jharkhand, was also being raided by the Enforcement Directorate.
Premises of several middlemen believed to have significant roles in facilitating unlawful deals, were also being searched by the Enforcement Directorate.
Sources said that ED raids have brought unwanted trouble for CM and his government as both Abhishek Prasad alias Pintu and Sahibganj DC are said to be close to CM.
The press advisor came to limelight in August last year too when the ED had sought details of FIRs and charge sheets filed against persons from the Jharkhand Police. Pintu’s name was one among the many featured in anonymous letters to the agency.
Incidentally, Pintu had been called in for questioning in the same case after allegations were levelled against him that he too owned mines in Sahibganj area. However, sources said that Pintu had said that the consent to operate was given to him during Raghubar Das’s tenure.
Incidentally, the Sahibganj Deputy Commissioner (DC) Ramniwas Yadav, whose official and private premises in Rajasthan are being raided today in the illegal mining scam, happens to be the third IAS officer in Jharkhand to face the ED knocks
Yadav, a 2015 batch IAS officer, has been posted as DC in Sahibganj since October 2020. The ED had questioned him last year on January 23 for seven hours as the maximum number of illegal mining and transportation was done during his tenure.
The two IAS officers, Pooja Singhal and Chhavi Ranjan are already cooling their heels in the Birsa Munda jail. While Pooja has been behind bars for more than one and half years in the MNREGA scam, Ranjan, a 2011 batch IAS officer, was arrested in May last year in the Ranchi land scam. Incidentally, the ED wants to record the statement of Chief Minister Hemant Soren in the land scam, too.
Yadav, hailing from Rajasthan, had been questioned on whether or not he was aware of the illegal stone mining scam in his district worth Rs. 1000 crore, which the agency is investigating.
Sources said the action was undertaken on the receipt of fresh inputs in the case.
The raids come on a day when the legislators of the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led coalition in the state are meeting here to discuss the current political scenario in the backdrop of the ED's summons to the chief minister in an alleged land grab case.
The agency, since 2022, has been probing a trail of Rs 100 crore of "proceeds of crime" generated from illegal mining operations in the state.
The money laundering probe began after the ED raided Pankaj Mishra, one of the political aides of Soren, and his alleged associates in July 2022 and covered 19 locations in Sahibganj, Barhet, Rajmahal, Mirza Chauki and Barharwa in Jharkhand to investigate alleged irregularities in the operation of toll plaza tenders and instances of illegal mining in the state.
