New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has summoned Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s press adviser Abhishek Prasad and Sahibganj Deputy Commissioner Ram Niwas Yadav for questioning in a cash laundering investigation linked to alleged unlawful mining within the state, official sources mentioned.
Prasad alias Pintu has been requested to depose on the federal company’s Ranchi workplace on January 16, Yadav on January 11 and one other particular person, Binod Singh, on January 15, they mentioned.
The sources mentioned their statements will probably be recorded beneath the Prevention of Cash Laundering Act (PMLA).
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had raided their premises and people of Sahibganj Deputy Superintendent of Police Rajendra Dubey and a few others on January 3.
The motion was associated to a case of “unlawful stone mining prevalent in Sahibganj, having proceeds of crime of greater than Rs 1,000 crore”, the company mentioned.
“Rampant unlawful mining actions have been being finished within the Sahibganj space and so as to verify the extent of this act, 20 joint inspections of unlawful mining actions have been carried out by the officers of the ED together with administrative, forest, mining and air pollution management departments of the Jharkhand authorities,” it mentioned “The joint inspection has confirmed the occasion of giant unlawful mining in addition to denudation of land and forest space resulting in environmental hazards,” the ED mentioned.
The cash laundering case stems from Jharkhand Police FIRs filed towards Bishnu Yadav, Pavitra Yadav and Pankaj Mishra, one of many political advisers of Soren, and others. The case was later taken over by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in keeping with the instructions of the Jharkhand Excessive Court docket, the ED mentioned.
It has been discovered within the probe that the “kingpin” of this occasion of unlawful mining was Pankaj Mishra. The ED had arrested him in July 2022 and he’s presently lodged in a jail in judicial custody.
The federal company mentioned in an announcement after the raids that other than seizing “incriminating” paperwork and digital knowledge, it additionally recovered Rs 36.99 lakh money, together with Rs 7.25 lakh from the camp workplace of Deputy Commissioner (DC) Ram Niwas Yadav.
Apart from these, 19 cartridges of 9 mm bore, two of .380 mm and 5 empty instances of .45 pistols have been additionally seized from the residential premises of the DC, it mentioned.
Thirty “benami” financial institution accounts, whose paperwork have been discovered through the day-long searches, have been frozen, it mentioned.
(This report has been printed as a part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Excpet for the headline, no enhancing has been finished within the physique by ABP Reside.)