VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, Sept 21: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has unearthed an illegal mining scam worth Rs 1000 crore in Jharkhand and the insiders have hinted that the quantum of the scam would swell in the coming months.
The ED revealed this heist in an official statement released days after it filed a prosecution complaint (chargesheet) against three persons namely Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s close aide Pankaj Mishra, power broker Prem Prakash and Sahibganj-based notorious criminal Bacchu Yadav. The Ranchi ED court took cognizance of the chargesheet today.
ED identifies Rs 42 crore as proceeds of crime of Pankaj Mishra
The ED so far has identified his properties worth Rs 42 crore through illegal mining and the same would be attached as proceeds of crime. About Pankaj Mishra, the ED has stated he enjoys political clout, being the representative of the Jharkhand Chief Minister. He controls the illegal mining businesses as well as inland ferry services in Sahibganj and its adjoining areas through his accomplices. He wields enormous control over the mining of stone chips and boulders as well as installation and operations of several crushers, set up across various mining sites in Sahibganj.
PMLA probe may trouble top bosses
The amount as revealed by the ED is an indication that the ghost of the PMLA may haunt many powerful persons as such a large scale illegal mining is not possible without active support and connivance of top officials and politicians, including the mining secretary Pooja Singhal who is in jail in another case. Earlier, the ED had disclosed that the scam was worth around Rs 100 crore which multiplied into a whopping amount.
The probe mainly centered in three districts of Santhal Pargana division namely Sahibganj, Dumka and Pakur where illegal stone mining has taken place at the large scale. The investigation of the illegal mining originated from an FIR lodged by one Sahibganj-based businessman Shambhu Nandan Kumar in a matter related to tender dispute.
He lodged an FIR at Barharwa police station on June 21 against minister Alamgir Alam, Pankaj Mishra and others under sections 147 (rioting), 149 (member of the unlawful assembly), 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 379 (to commit theft), 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 504 (Intentional insult) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.
ED has taken up as many as five illegal mining cases
Insiders said that other than Barharwa tender dispute case, the ED has taken up as many as five other offences for investigation related to illegal mining. In these matters, the FIRs were registered in Sahibganj district by private persons against Pankaj Mishra, mining officials and others under IPC, Explosive substances Act, Arms Act have also been taken into the ambit of scheduled offence.
So far the ED has carried 47 searches throughout India. It seized cash amounting to Rs. 5.34 crore and froze 50 bank accounts containing Rs. 13.32 crore cash. It froze an inland vessel, five stone crushers, two Hyva trucks, many incriminating documents and two AK 47 Assault Rifles.
