VIJAY
Ranchi, March 1: The Ranchi zonal office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has sent notice to retired DSP Yagnarayan Tiwari and the editor of Bharat Varta Ravindra Nath Tiwari who had illegally met illegal stone mining accused Pankaj Mishra at RIMS where he was lodged for treatment under judicial custody.
Well-placed sources said that they have been directed to appear on March 13 and March 14 respectively at the zonal office of the ED to record their statement. The ED wants to know why they met Pankaj Mishra without any permission, what was the purpose of the meeting and who facilitated their meeting.
About a month back Yagnarayan Tiwari retired as DSP (Headquarter) in Sahibganj district. Notably, DSP investigated cases against Pankaj Mishra which later on were taken over by ED. This includes an FIR 146/21 which one Ramesh Paswan had lodged against Pankaj Mishra under sections of IPC and Prevention of SC, ST Prevention of Atrocities Act at Taljhari police station. The ED later merged this FIR in the instant case of the Barharwa toll plaza case which is the basis of the investigation of the illegal stone mining probe. Other accused in this FIR are district mining officer Bibhuti Kumar and others.
Yagnarayan Tiwari is supervising this case and he had given a clean chit to Pankaj Mishra. However, Ramesh Paswan has filed a protest petition.
On getting a complaint that Pankaj Mishra meets people and makes phone calls to influence witnesses and the probe against himself, the ED secured CCTV footage of RIMS paying ward. During scrutiny of the footage, the DSP was spotted going to meet Pankaj Mishra.
Ravindra Nath Tiwari claims to be the editor-in-chief of the web news network Bharat Varta. It is claimed that he worked with Hindustan Newspaper in Bhagalpur and in Patna of Bihar. He also stayed in Sahibganj for many years.
Notably, the ED earlier had summoned another Sahibganj DSP Rajendra Dubey who had met Pankaj Miahra besides the superintendent engineer of the energy department Nathan Rajak and many others.
