The Enforcement Directorate has summoned Media Advisor to Chief Minister Hemant Soren, Abhishek Prasad ‘Pintu’, Sahibganj Deputy Commissioner Ramniwas Yadav, Vinod Singh and former Katoria (Bihar) MLA Pappu Yadav for questioning in the illegal mining case. ED has summoned Abhishek Prasad Pintu to appear before the agency on January 16, DC Ramniwas Yadav on January 11 and Vinod Singh on January 15. They have been called for questioning at the zonal office in Ranchi.
Notably, the agency had conducted search operations at 12 locations in Jharkhand, West Bengal and Rajasthan in the early hours of January 3. The raids were conducted in connection with the illegal mining case worth more than Rs 1,000 crore. ED has said that during the searches, incriminating digital devices, documents/records and cash were recovered from various locations. ED issued a press release saying that a total of Rs 36.99 lakh, including Rs 7.55 lakh in cash, was recovered from the camp office of Sahibganj DC Ramniwas Yadav.
The agency has revealed that 19 cartridges of 9 mm bore, 2 cartridges of .380 mm and an empty shell of .45 pistol were recovered from the residential premises of DC. ED said that during the search, 30 benami bank accounts were also detected. They have been frozen. After the action, it was told by ED that illegal mining worth Rs 1,250 crore was actually done in Jharkhand.
ED initiated investigation on the basis of FIR registered at SC/ST P.S, Sahibganj, under various sections of IPC, Arms Act and JMMC Rules, 2004 against Bishnu Yadav, Pavitra Yadav, Pankaj Mishra and others regarding illegal stone mining. Later on, the subject case was taken over by CBI as per the direction of Jharkhand High Court, the agency has said.
The agency further said that the investigation revealed that rampant illegal mining activities were being done in Sahibganj area. In order to ascertain the extent of illegal mining, twenty joint inspections of illegal mining activities were carried out by the Officers of the ED along with Administrative, Forest, Mining, Pollution Control Officers of State Government of Jharkhand in different area of Sahibganj District. The joint inspection has confirmed the instance of huge illegal mining as well as denudation of land and forest area leading to other environmental hazards. During the joint inspection, the quantum of illegal mining of more than 23.26 Crore cubic feet having approximate market value of Rs. 1250 Crore has been detected and determined. ED investigation also revealed that the kingpin of illegal mining activities was Pankaj Mishra who was arrested by ED on 19.07.2022 and currently he is in judicial custody.
