VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, Nov 22: Kolkata-based businessman Amit Agrawal had allegedly some bigger business plans for Santhal Pargana as he recently obtained permission from the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) to operate cargo ship in the river Ganga on the stretch between Sahibganj (Jharkhand) and Mayapur in West Bengal.
Amit Agrawal is an accused of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the cash for PIL case and the agency chargesheeted him for giving bribe to Jharkhand High Court advocate Rajiv Kumar to scuttle the shell company related PIL. He is currently in jail at Birsa Munda Central jail in Ranchi. He is also on the list of suspects of the ED in the illegal stone mining scam in Sahibganj.
Sometime before his arrest, Amit Agrawal apparently secured operational permission for his company Rajesh Auto Merchandise Private Limited to which he is one of the directors. It has been stated that he also acquired land at Mayapur to expand his business. Mayapur which is part of Nadia district is closely situated on the Bangladesh border. River Ganga river swishes through three states — entering Sahibganj (Jharkhand) from Manihari in Katihar (Bihar), negotiating Rajmahal (again, Jharkhand) and then going to Farakka and Manichak in Malda (all in Bengal). Sahibganj has emerged as an important lucrative inland waterways connecting Jharkhand with the global market and providing Indo-Nepal cargo connectivity through the route of the waterway. The multi-Modal terminal on Ganga has connected Sahibganj to Kolkata, Haldia, and further to the Bay of Bengal besides the North-East States through Bangladesh by the river-sea route.
But more than that, the ED has named him as a key player of the illegal stone mining scam in Sahibganj which, according to the ED. is worth Rs 1000 crore. This is one of the big ticket cases of the ED in Jharkhand that has ruffled the feathers of the Hemant Soren government. Even Chief Minister Hemant Soren was questioned by the ED in this case.
It is just a matter of time when the ED would file a chargesheet against Amit Agrawal in the mining scam. The ED in its first ever chargesheet has stated that illegally mined stone chips and boulders were mainly transported through cargo ships via river Ganga.
The ED has stated that a substantial portion of the proceeds of the crime of illegal mining scam was laundered through many companies of Amit Agrawal. The ED stated that while Pankaj Mishra (Hemant Soren’s MLA representative) was conducting illegal stone mining and transportation, power broker Prem Prakash collected cash. Prem Prakash, in turn, handed over the cash to Amit Agrawal who laundered and accommodated proceeds of crime of illegal mining to several points. The ED claimed that all it was done on the instruction of Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
