Akhilesh Yadav, president of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh is reportedly going to ignore the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) summons to appear before the agency in Delhi on 29th February regarding an illegal mining case in the state’s Hamirpur region between 2012 and 2016. Akhilesh Yadav received a notification from the central agency on 28th February asking him to testify as a witness in the matter, however, he reportedly decided not to follow through.
Akhilesh Yadav has no plans to go anywhere except to attend the PDA “Picchda (backward classes), Dalit and Alpsankhyak (minorities)” meeting that is scheduled to take place at the party office in Lucknow, according to Samajwadi Party leaders. Samajwadi Party’s backward wing state president Rajpal Kashyap stated, “Akhileshji will attend a meeting of PDA at the party office today.” Party spokesperson Rajendra Chowdhury confirmed, “He is not going anywhere. He will be attending a meeting in Lucknow.”
He further claimed, “I don’t have detailed information regarding this,” in reference to the CBI notice and added, “But it is sure, he is not going to Delhi today.” The CBI has requested Akhilesh Yadav to present himself before the agency in a notice delivered under section 160 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), according to officials. A police officer conducting an investigation could summon witnesses under this clause. A senior official aware of the development noted, “He is not the accused. He is a witness.”
The cases deal with the mining leases that were allegedly issued without following the e-tendering process that the Samajwadi Party government ordered on 31st May 2012. The investigation was ordered by the Allahabad High Court. During his tenure as chief minister from 2012 to 2016, it is alleged that public employees permitted illicit mining and unlawfully extended licenses in defiance of the National Green Tribunal’s mining ban.
The CBI highlighted that on 17th February 2013, the Chief Minister’s office approved 13 projects in a single day, circumventing the e-tendering procedure. Akhilesh Yadav oversaw the mining portfolio from 2012 to 2013 after which Gayatri Prajapati was appointed to the position. There are accusations that Gayatri Prajapati, the former minister of mining, unlawfully issued new leases and extended those that already existed in a way that resulted in significant losses for the state coffers and unjustified profit for him and his allies.
The Delhi unit of the CBI’s Anti-Corruption Branch received the case. A mining officer named Moinuddin, a mining clerk named Ram Ashrey Prajapati, an IAS officer who was then District Magistrate (DM) Hamirpur B Chandrakala, and nine other individuals were among the eleven people the CBI had searched in January 2019 in relation to the purported scam. According to the case, the accused permitted the mining of minor minerals as part of a criminal conspiracy to steal the minerals and extort money from the leaseholders and the drivers of the trucks that were delivering the minor minerals.
Akhilesh Yadav in response to the CBI summons alleged on 28th February that the 2019 case was launched with political intent in advance of the impending Lok Sabha elections. “The SP is on the maximum target (of the BJP). In 2019, I got a notice on some matter as there were Lok Sabha polls then. Now, when the election is approaching again, I am getting a notice again. I know, when the election comes, notice will also come. Why this nervousness? If you (BJP) have done a lot of work in the past 10 years, why are you nervous,” he asked.
The case involved the filing of a formal complaint against eleven individuals who permitted illicit mining activities in defiance of a National Green Tribunal mining prohibition. The charges included criminal conspiracy, theft, extortion, cheating, attempt to commit offences and misconduct. Following an order from the Allahabad High Court in 2016, the CBI began the investigation.
As part of its seven Preliminary Enquiries (PEs) filed in 2017 per the Allahabad High Court’s ruling, the agency was looking into illicit mining in the districts of Shamli, Hamirpur, Saharanpur, Deoria, Fatehpur, Siddharth Nagar, and Kaushambi. Three of the First Information Reports were filed in January 2019. “The role of then mining ministers concerned during the relevant period may be looked into during the course of investigation of the case,” The official complaint highlighted.
