The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has summoned Samajwadi Party (SP) president and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav as a witness for questioning on Thursday in connection with Rs 100 crore illegal mining cases. The case, registered in 2019, involves alleged violations of the e-tendering process in the issuance of mining leases. The Allahabad High Court had ordered the probe, and it is claimed that illegal mining took place during 2012-2016, when Akhilesh Yadav was the Chief Minister. The allegations include the illegal renewal of licenses despite a ban by the National Green Tribunal on mining.
The CBI has invoked section 160 of the CrPC, allowing them to summon witnesses for questioning in the probe. The agency had filed seven preliminary inquiries in 2016 on the court’s direction to investigate the case of illegal mining of minor minerals. The CBI alleges that during Akhilesh Yadav’s tenure as Chief Minister, his office cleared numerous projects in violation of the e-tendering process. Specifically, 14 leases were reportedly cleared on February 17, 2013, in violation of the 2012 e-tender policy, according to the CBI.
The investigation also points out that the leases were granted by the district magistrate of Hamirpur, B Chandrakala, after approval from the chief minister’s office. The CBI conducted searches in January 2019 in connection with the FIR against 11 people, including IAS officer B Chandrakala, Samajwadi Party MLC Ramesh Kumar Mishra, and Sanjay Dixit, who contested the 2017 assembly election on a BSP ticket.
Akhilesh Yadav, who held the mining portfolio during 2012-13, is under scrutiny, with the FIR suggesting that his role may be questionable. Yadav served as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 2012 to 2017. His successor, Gayatri Prajapati, who took charge as the mining minister in 2013, was arrested in 2017 on charges of rape.