VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, Jan. 18: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Deputy Commissioner of Sahibganj Ramniwas Yadav in connection with the Rs 1000 crore illegal stone mining scam centered in Sahibganj district. Well placed sources confirmed that the ED has directed him to appear before the agency on Monday (January 23).
Notably, when the ED on November 18 last year had questioned Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren about the illegal stone mining and transportation in Sahibganj he passed the buck on local officials, including Ramniwas Yadav.
Hemant Soren who is also the mining minister was particularly asked about Pankaj Mishra and Dahu Yadav who are the prime accused of the illegal stone mining. The Chief Minister said that he was not aware of Pankaj Mishra’s involvement in the illegal mining and he never hindered the Sahibganj district administration and the police from acting against illegal mining activities. The CM fixed the onus on Sahibganj DC Ramniwas Yadav for taking appropriate actions and said that as Chief Minister he never stopped officials from taking action.
The ED wants to question whether or not he, as the DC, was aware of the rampant illegal mining in the district. But he in collusion with mining mafias turned blind eyes towards illegal mining and transportation. Yadav will have to explain what else he did to stop illegal stone mining, transportation and royalty theft. The ED has already established the fact that there was a huge mismatch between total procurement of explosives for mining purposes by private parties in Sahibganj and the total amount of stone chips and boulders generated. He also allegedly gave a false report to Dumka commissioner Chandra Mohan Kashyap about the accident of the stone chips laden cargo ship in river Ganga in March last year. Besides, he used to take instructions from some political persons and extended undue favour. The ED is likely to confront him with some phone conversations he had with some political persons and suspects.
It is reflected in the charge-sheet of the ED that the maximum illegal stone mining and transportation took place during the regime of Ramniwas Yadav. As per the Jharkhand Minor Mineral Concession Rules 2004 and Jharkhand Minerals (Prevention of Illegal Mining, Transportation and Storage) Rules 2017, the DC is overall responsible for the management of minor minerals. He also heads a district level task force against illegal mining.
2015 batch IAS Ramniwas Yadav joined as Deputy Commissioner of Sahibganj in October 2020. He is the first serving IAS officer who has been summoned by the federal anti-money laundering agency.
The ED will also question him about the illegal transportation of stone chips and boulders via ships and railway.
It is alleged that Yadav in collusion with Pankaj Mishra and others allowed illegal mining and its transportation. Pankaj Mishra is the MLA representative of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and the ED charge-sheeted him along with power broker Prem Prakash and criminal Bacchu Yadav.
His role is also under scanner for allegedly allowing illegal transportation of stone chips through ferry service via river Ganga. The ferry services are managed by Sahibganj Nav Yatayat Sahyog Samiti Limited (SNYSSL). This runs ferry services on the river Ganga between Sahibganj and Katihar.
In March last year an overloaded cargo ship met with an accident in river Ganga. More than four persons died in the accident when a cargo ship got unbalanced at Manihari in Katihar district of Bihar. The ferry service is governed by the Bengal Ferry Act which prohibits any night operation. The cargo that met with the accident had operated at night. But the DC allegedly lied and said that the said cargo met with an accident during the day time. As DC of Sahibganj he submitted report to Santhal Pargana divisional commissioner Chandra Mohan Kashyap.
The ED intercepted a number of phone calls of Pankaj Mishra during investigation of the illegal mining case. It was revealed that Pankaj Mishra had pressured the local administration to stop any investigation. Pankaj Mishra had made a call to Chandra Mohan Kashyap asking him not to make any further inquiry into the cargo ship accident and accept the report submitted by Ram Niwas Yadav.
The Katihar district administration gave a contradictory report about the timing of the accident thus raising questions over the report submitted by the Sahibganj DC.
The ED stated that the cargo ship accident in the river Ganga was a corollary of the illegal mining and transportation in the Sahibganj district. Notably, on the night of March 24, the Rajdhani cargo ship carrying over a dozen stone chips laden trucks ferrying to Katihar from Sahibganj in the river Ganga met with an accident near Khuti ghat under Manihari police station of Katihar district in Bihar.
The body of one labourer Jubair Alam (19) of Manihari could be recovered whose father Abdul Khalil lodged an FIR under sections 280 (rash navigation of vessel), 282 (Conveying person by water for hire in unsafe or overloaded vessel), 337 and 338 (doing any act so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life), 304 A (causing death by negligence) and 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of IPC.
Abdul Khalil claimed that there were around six persons on the deck of that ship out of which two or three persons could save their life. One more labourer Vicky Mahaldar of Bengal was on the deck and he is said to be still missing as Abdul Khalil. It is not clear how many trucks fell in the Ganga, but the rescue team could fish out around five trucks.
