india

Updated: Jan 05, 2019 23:47 IST

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) teams on Saturday raided 14 places in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, including the residence of a popular woman civil servant, a Samajwadi Party (SP) member of the legislative council (MLC), mining department officials and red sand mining lease holders, in connection with mining irregularities in Bundelkhand, CBI officers said.

The alleged scam dates back to 2012-16 , when the SP under Akhilesh Yadav was in power. The FIR states: “The role of the then mining ministers concerned during the relevant period may be looked into during the course of investigation.” In the period, Yadav handled the mining portfolio for a spell before it was handed over to Gayatri Prajapati.

CBI officers, who are probing the mining irregularities on the orders of the Allahabad high court, on Saturday seized multiple documents related to mining, property documents, around five kilograms of gold and jewellery as well as over ₹2 crore in cash during the searches, the officers said on condition of anonymity.

The agency conducted the raids on Saturday after registering a first information report (FIR) on Wednesday under sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act against B Chandrakala, a 2008 batch officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), and 10 others including SP MLC Ramesh Kumar Sharma following the discovery of anomalies in sanctioning and renewing red sand mining leases in Hamirpur between 2012 and 2016, they said.

CBI officers also questioned the MLC and former Zila Panchayat chairman Sanjiv Dixit in Hamirpur, who were among the lease holders and allegedly involved in illegal mining of red sand in Bundelkhand, a region where illegal red sand mining has thrived for long .

The Samajwadi Party said the timing of the raids were suspect. “The party welcomes the CBI action but the timings of the raids raises questions on the intentions of the government,” said Abdul Hafiz Gandhi, SP spokesperson.

Leaders of SP and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) met in the national capital on Friday to discuss an alliance for the Lok Sabha elections due later this year. The alliance is seen as a potent threat to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), in a report tabled in the legislative assembly in 2017, had claimed that the state government was deprived of Rs 477.93 crore in by illegal mining.

Chandrakala, 38, a former Hamiirpur district magistrate, is a social media favourite, thanks to the widely circulated videos of her conducting surprise inspections and pulling up civic officials, whether it be over poor quality of building material or poor sanitation.

In Lucknow, the apartment of Chandrakala in Sapphire Homes and Villas, a building in the heart of Lucknow, was searched. CBI officers searched the flat and stayed there for three hours before leaving the flat after collecting documents related to the red sand mining contracts. The officers seized documents related to property and sealed a locker that contained jewellery. A CBI team also searched the IAS officer’s residence in Telangana’s Karimnagar town.

Chandrakala is accused of sanctioning and renewing leases flouting the norms of e-tendering during her posting as district magistrate of Hamirpur after July 2012.

An officer probing the case said on condition of anonymity that around two dozen IAS officers, dozen of politicians, three dozen mining contractors and district mining officers are on the radar. Prior to the registration of the FIR, an enquiry was conducted into alleged illegal mining of minor minerals in Hamirpur on the direction of the Allahabad high court. The allegation is that public servants, in a criminal conspiracy, allowed illegal mining of minor minerals in Hamirpur during 2012-2016. The CBI alleged that they had illegally granted fresh leases for mining of red sand, renewed existing leases and caused a loss to the government exchequer and undue gain to themselves.

(With inputs from HTC in New Delhi)