SUMAN K SHRIVASTAVA
Ranchi, July 7: The ED that got today the custody of Sahibganj mines lease holder Krishna Saha for five days, has said that he had close links with Pankaj Mishra, Jharkhand CM’s MLA representative, and had laundered over Rs 19 crore.
“The generation of the proceeds of crime also corroborates the findings of illegal mining done by Saha, who was arrested yesterday in the illegal mining case,” it added.
The ED, which produced Saha in the special court today, in its remand petition, said that the total area which had been taken on lease by him was 6.13 acres in Sahebganj. “But he has done illegal mining beyond his lease area and the total area of mining was found to be spread on an area of 12.60 acres,” it said.
The ED investigation revealed that Pankaj Mishra and his associates wanted to gain control over tolls coming under Barharwa Nagar Panchayat to easily monitor his business of illegal mining as these tolls lie in the routes connecting stone mining sites to various destinations including Bihar and Bengal.
The ED probe also revealed that Pankaj Mishra is directly involved in conducting illegal mining of stone chips and their transportation through his several accomplices, including Krishna Kumar Saha, Bhagwan Bhagat, Tinkal Bhagat, Bishnu Kumar Yadav and others.
The investigation also established links between Pankaj Mishra and Krishna Kumar Saha. During investigation, bank account transactions between Pankaj Mishra and Krishna Kumar Saha were revealed.
“The facts and circumstances in the case lead to a reasonable belief that an offence under section 3 of PMLA, 2002 has been committed by the Krishna Saha and other persons mentioned in earlier prosecution complaint(s) are knowingly a party to this activity,” the ED stated.
The ED sought the custody as Saha was withholding information regarding illegal mining in Sahibganj district and was evasive in his responses.
The ED also wants to corroborate Saha with the incriminating documents in possession of the agency and to ascertain the trail of proceeds of crime involved in the present case and identify the beneficiaries of the aforesaid proceed of crime.
It also wants to ascertain the role of other alleged/suspected persons involved in the laundering of proceeds of crime.
