VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, Dec 21: Pankaj Mishra, who is accused of illegal stone mining in Sahibganj, had made phone calls to Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s media advisor Abhishek Prasad alias Pintu, from jail, to teach a lesson to Shambhu Nandan Kumar and Prakash Chandra Yadav and get them arrested.
Consequently, the Sahibganj police arrested Prakash Chandra Yadav near Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi on July 30 barely a couple of days after Pankaj Mishra had allegedly called Abhishek Prasad to get him arrested. It has reliably been learnt that when Pankaj Mishra insisted on the arrest, Abhishek Prasad asked him to give him some time. Stone mining businessman Prakash Chandra Yadav was returning to Patna after meeting an MLA from Santhal Pargana when the Sahibganj police arrested him in an Arms Act case.
Well-placed ED sources claimed that Pankaj Mishra and Abhishek Prasad were in regular touch over phone. It transpires from phone calls that Pankaj Mishra was highly annoyed with Shambhu Nandan Kumar and Prakash Chandra Yadav and held them responsible for his problems as their complaint and the deposition landed him in jail in the biggest ever money laundering case of Jharkhand.
The ED is claimed to have gathered evidence in terms of phone calls among Pankaj Mishra, Abhishek Prasad and a senior law officer. The ED has claimed that they tried to interfere in the investigation of the ongoing illegal stone mining case. The ED has submitted a detailed report to the Jharkhand High Court which is hearing a petition of Shambhu Nandan Prasad who demanded a CBI probe of the Barharwa toll case. Now the
Pankaj Mishra is the MLA representative of Chief Minister and the ED arrested him in July as the mastermind of the illegal stone mining scam worth Rs. 1000 crore in Sahibganj district in Santhal Pargana. Pankaj Mishra while in judicial custody made around 300 phone calls to several persons including many high-profile persons and passed instructions.
Shambhu Nandan Kumar had lodged an FIR against Pankaj Mishra, state minister Alamgir Alam, known as Barharwa toll plaza case which was later taken on by the ED resulting in exposure of the illegal stone mining scam. Ankush Yadav is son Prakash Chandra Yadav and he had recorded his statement against Pankaj Mishra and his aide Dahu Yadav and Bacchu Yadav.
