Trouble brews for Akhilesh, as CBI books ex-minister in mining case
NEW DELHI: Trouble seems to be in store for former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked his then ministerial colleague Gayatri Prajapati and several IAS officers in alleged illegal sand mining case in Uttar Pradesh’s Fatehpur district.
Prajapati is currently in a UP jail in a gangrape case, involving a woman and her minor daughter. COURT ORDER Besides Prajapati, the CBI has named Jiwesh Nandan, then Principal Secretary of Geology and Mining department, Santosh Kumar, then Special Secretary, Geology and Mining, Hari Mohan Jha, then Under-secretary of Geology and Mining and Abhay Kumar Singh, then District Magistrate of Fatehpur.
Besides the IAS officers, the CBI has also booked Shiv Singh and Sukhraj, residents of Fatehpur in the case.
The CBI filed the FIR on June 29 on the orders of the Allahabad High Court and booked them under the Prevention of Corruption Act, criminal conspiracy, theft and cheating. CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY The investigating agency in its FIR alleged that Shiv Singh was granted a sand mining lease for three years on November 8, 2006. He reapplied for the renewal of the lease in 2009 without obtaining the ‘no due certificate’ for the amount of Rs 6.2 lakh for illegal mining.
The FIR said the then ADM (Mining) and other mining official had rejected Shiv Singh’s renewal licence as it was found “non maintainable” on October 17, 2010.
“It is alleged that Shiv Singh in criminal conspiracy with the then mining officials of Fatehpur and unknown others got the opinion of the Mining officials changed in his favour — that if he cleared all his dues of the Mining Department, then his renewal application might be sent for the prior approval to the Uttar Pradesh government,” the FIR said.
The FIR alleged that Shiv Singh then cleared all his dues of Rs 6.2 lakh with the Mining Department on May 1, 2012 and got the ‘no dues certificate’ on May 16, 2012 and also received the environmental clearance certificate on December 10, 2012.