VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, May 28: Guess who is the mining sardar of Santhal Pargana who rules the roost to an extent that even babus of Santhal Pargana dare not to call him by his first name. The man, who is the MLA representative of Barhet MLA and Chief Minister Hemant Soren, is referred to as Baba who is said to be as powerful as the chief minister himself. Many call him the Sahib of Sahibganj.
Ask Google who is Pankaj Mishra and the search engine would deliver the result in detail the countless number of news, photographs, controversies, and the rise of this man who is allegedly minting money out of mining and many things.
Hemant Soren made Pankaj Mishra his local representative who is a native of Sakrogadh under Borio police station of Sahibganj district. The Enforcement Directorate has launched a money-laundering investigation and is said to be investigating his role in the illegal mining.
It is said that he is the only person who decides who can do and who can’t-do stone and sand mining and transportation in his fiefdom; Santhal Pargana. But none dare to whisper against him.
Pankaj Mishra allegedly grabbed stone mine of Binod Kumar Jaiswal
“If Pankaj Mishra wants you to become his partner in the stone mining and crusher units then you don’t have any option. You have to fall in line because either you will be booked in false cases or your mines lease and crusher unit license will be terminated,” said Sahibganj-based businessman Binod Kumar Jaiswal.
Binod Jaiswal, the owner of Aryan Stone Works, got the mining lease of the Mundali stone deposit at Mundali village under Mirzachauki. The mining area is spread over 8.76 hectares.
A few months after the JMM-Congress-RJD government was formed headed by Hemant Soren, Pankaj Mishra started putting pressure on Binod Jaiswal to make him a partner of his firm.
“One-day district mining officer Bibhuti Kumar and SDO Pankaj Sao came to my unit and halted the mining operation. When I asked the reason, Bibhuti Kumar said Baba se baat kar lijiye,” said Binod Jaiswal.
Binod Jaiswal alleged that on December 8, 2020, Pankaj Mishra summoned him to the residence of his associate Patru Singh. “Here he forced me to sign the agreement paper at gunpoint. According to that agreement, he became a partner of 50 percent of that mining activity. I had invested something around Rs 60 lakhs to develop that stone mine. Pankaj Mishra threw me away from my rightful claim in the mining. I am no longer in possession of the Mundali stone deposit. Once I resisted, Pankaj Mishra implicated me in a false case. He is still mining here. I am not the single victim of this kind,” said Binod Jaiswal.
But Pankaj Mishra outrightly rejected the allegation and said that he had not pressured Binod Jaiswal to be the partner. “He had approached me otherwise I have no interest in being the partner of such a cheat. That agreement is no longer valid because it was rejected by the district administration. I don’t have any mining lease,” said Pankaj Mishra.
