The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday conducted searches at six locations across Uttar Pradesh in connection with a money laundering case relating to alleged irregularities of over Rs 111 crore in construction of memorials in the State during BSP supremo Mayawati’s stint as Chief Minister.
The latest ED move comes close on the heels of separate cases by CBI and ED in connection with mining of minor minerals and money laundering issues respectively in which the role of UP CM Akhilesh Yadav is to be probed by the two agencies.
The agencies’ action also comes at a time when Yadav and Mayawati have forged an alliance to contest the forthcoming Parliamentary polls.
In the memorials case, the ED has filed a criminal case under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to investigate the allegations of money laundering after taking cognisance of a State vigilance department complaint of 2014.
The searched premises include those relating to some officials and other private persons, sources said.
The vigilance complaint was filed under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act and it related to alleged financial irregularities in the construction of memorials, including statues of BSP founder Kanshi Ram and the party’s poll symbol ‘elephant’, during the regime of Mayawati as CM of UP between 2007 and 2012.
The vigilance department alleged that the construction of memorials “resulted in the loss of over Rs 111,44,35,066 to the Government exchequer and unlawful gain to public servants and private individuals”.
The UP Government headed by Mayawati had built the memorials, statues and parks entailing an expenditure of over Rs 2,600 crore in Lucknow, Noida and a few other places in the State.
The UP Lokayukta had earlier indicted Mayawati’s two Cabinet colleagues — Nasmeedunin Siddiqui and Babu Singh Kushwaha — besides 12 BSP MLAs and several others for alleged ‘wrong-doings’ in the purchase of sandstone for the memorials.
On the Lokayukta’s report, an FIR was lodged by the vigilance department against them in 2014. Other named as accused in the case include more than 100 engineers and officers of the UP Rajkiya Nirman Nigam, Public Works Department and New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA).
In the mining scam probe, the ED had earlier this month conducted searches at several locations in a money laundering case in which former Yadav is under scanner as he held the mining portfolio during the period of the scandal.