lucknow

Updated: Jan 30, 2019 20:01 IST

IAS officer B Chandrakala, who has been booked in an alleged multi-crore sand mining scam, appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Lucknow on Wednesday.

She was questioned for eight hours by a team of six assistant directors in the presence of joint director Rajeshwar Singh since 11 am, a senior ED official said.

Chandrakala was being questioned about sanctioning and renewing of mining leases without following e-tendering norms during her tenure as district magistrate of Hamipur for over two years between April 13, 2012 and June 6, 2014.

Chandrakala was earlier asked to visit the ED office and get her statements recorded on January 24. She was also told to present all documents related to the mining lease granted and renewed by her. She, however, did not turn up on the scheduled date. Her lawyer appeared and presented the documents sought by the ED officials then.

The ED had registered an FIR under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against 11 people, including the 2008 batch IAS officer and Samajwadi Party (SP) MLC Ramesh Kumar Mishra, who were booked by the CBI’s Delhi unit on January 2.

The CBI had registered an FIR only after carrying out preliminary enquiry into alleged anomalies in allotment of sand mining lease between 2012 and 2016. The agency had conducted preliminary enquiry on the order of Allahabad high court given on the writ petition of Nar Narain Mishra and others on July 28, 2016.

The CBI had conducted searches at around 12 places, including the houses of Chandrakala, SP MLC and other nine accused in Lucknow, Noida, Kanpur, Jalaun and Hamirpur on January 5 and had seized several documents related to mining and property, over 4 kg gold and jewellery and over Rs 2 core from different places.