Five years after filing the initial complaint, the CBI has sent summon for Samajwadi Party president and former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav, as a witness for questioning on Friday in connection with instances involving illegal mining.
According to officials, the agency requested that he appear before it on February 29 in relation to the 2019 case in a notice sent under section 160 of the CrPC.
A police officer conducting an investigation may call witnesses under this clause.
The complaint concerns mining leases that were allegedly issued without following the e-tendering procedure. The investigation was ordered by the Allahabad High Court.
It is said that while Yadav was chief minister from 2012 to 2016, governmental employees permitted illicit mining and unlawfully extended licenses in defiance of the National Green Tribunal’s mining ban.
It is claimed that the officials coerced money out of drivers and lease holders and permitted the theft of minerals.
In 2016, the CBI initiated seven preliminary inquiries in response to the Allahabad High Court’s directives to look into the issue of illicit mining of minor minerals.
According to sources, the agency had claimed that the office of the former chief minister, Akhilesh Yadav, had cleared 13 projects in a single day.
It had been stated that Yadav, who had also previously handled the mining portfolio, had approved 14 leases, 13 of which were approved on February 17, 2013, in defiance of the e-tendering procedure.
According to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the district magistrate of Hamirpur, B Chandrakala, approved the leases on February 17, 2013, in violation of the chief minister’s office’s 2012 e-tender policy, which was approved by the Allahabad High Court on January 29 of that same year.
In January 2019, the CBI conducted searches at 14 locations in relation to its First Information Report (FIR) against 11 individuals, namely B Chandrakala, an IAS officer, Samajwadi Party MLC Ramesh Kumar Mishra, and Sanjay Dixit, who unsuccessfully ran for assembly in 2017 on a BSP ticket. The purpose of the investigation was to look into the alleged illegal mining of minor minerals in Hamirpur district between 2012 and 2016.
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