New Delhi: The CBI conducted searches at 16 locations in three states including poll-bound Jharkhand in connection with the state's illegal stone mining scam in Nimbu Pahar in which an alleged political aide of Chief Minister Hemant Soren is under the scanner, officials said. The central probe agency conducted searches in Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar. It launched an operation at 11 locations in Jharkhand's Sahibganj, three locations in Ranchi, and one each in Patna and Kolkata at the premises of suspects and their associates, the officials said.
The assembly polls in Jharkhand will be take place on November 13 and 20 in which ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and the INDIA bloc will face the BJP and its NDA allies. The CBI has recovered Rs 50 lakh cash, one kilogram gold and one kilogram of silver besides property documents worth crores during the searches, they said.
The agency had registered the case on November 23, 2023 on the directions of the Jharkhand High Court. In its FIR registered on November 20 last year, the Ranchi unit of the CBI has booked Soren's alleged political aide Pankaj Mishra, Pavitra Kumar Yadav, Rajesh Yadav, Sanjay Kumar Yadav, Bacchu Yadav, Sanjay Yadav and Suvesh Mandal. They are allegedly involved in the "pilferage and illegal extraction" of stone at Nimbu Pahar in Sahibganj.
The Jharkhand High Court had directed the CBI to conduct a preliminary enquiry into the conduct of the accused people booked by Sahibganj Police and also the conduct of petitioner Bijay Hansda who had sought to withdraw the writ petition.
It issued the orders on the petition of Hansda, alleging that for the last two-and-a half years, "stone mafias" are doing "illegal mining" in connivance with government officials, including mining officials, of his district. He has alleged that they are using earthmoving machines and carrying out blasts which resulted in cracks in the houses of villagers.
Hansda had alleged that he has seen that illegal mining was done in the presence of Mishra but his complaints to district officials did not result in any action from their side. It had also directed the agency to register a regular case after the preliminary enquiry (PE) and look into the role of other public servants.
After completion of the PE, the agency had taken over the FIR filed by Sahibganj Police in illegal mining case against the eight accused. During a hearing before the high court, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had said that Mishra controls the illegal stone mining and their transportation in Sahibganj.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has expressed serious concerns over the issue of illegal mining in Sahibganj, the ED had said. "It has been further stated that Pankaj Mishra (is) the MLA representative of the Jharkhand chief minister and is a very influential person," the high court had noted.
It had said Mishra is directly involved in illegal mining in Sahibganj and its adjoining areas. "... the said Pankaj Mishra is already arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and he is in jail custody," the court had said, citing ED submissions. Mishra is enjoying political patronage and that is why the investigation is not being done in the correct perspective, it noted.
"The court finds that there are sufficient materials of illegal mining in the district of Sahibganj that too on the behest of one Pankaj Mishra and others and if such materials are there on the record, the court finds in view of the counter-affidavit filed by the respondent State of Jharkhand that the investigation is only an eyewash so far the illegal mining is concerned," Justice Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi had said in the August 18, 2023 order.
