ED searches premises of Jharkhand CM Soren's press adviser in Rs 1,250 crore illegal mining case

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Wednesday conducted searches at 12 locations across four states including the premises of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Sorens press adviser Abhishek Prasad Pintu, the deputy commissioner (DC) and the deputy superintendent of police (DSP) of Sahibganj district, in connection with a Rs 1,250 crore illegal stone mining case.. IAS officer Ram Niwas Yadav is the Sahibganj DC while Rajendra Dubey is the DSP of Sahibganj..

The two have been questioned by the agency in connection with this case earlier as well.. CM Soren too was questioned in this case in November 2022, when he rebuffed the agencys claims saying that even 6,500 rakes of illegally mined stone could not fetch a royalty of Rs 1,000 crore...

Even if all these 6,500 rakes loaded only illegally mined stone, which cannot be the case, they would not be sufficient to transport the total quantity of 8 crore MT of illegally mined stone which would fetch a royalty of Rs 1,000 crore, Soren had said in his letter to the agency at the time...

Bishnu Yadav and Pavitra Yadav, who operated Maa Amba Stone Works, the firm allegedly involved in illegal stone mining in Sahibganj, were also named in the FIR, lodged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Arms Act and the Jharkhand Minor Mineral Concession Rules (JMMC) Rules, 2004...

Then in November, the agency registered an FIR and booked Pankaj Mishra, Pavitra Kumar Yadav, Rajesh Yadav, Sanjay Kumar Yadav, Bacchu Yadav, Sanjay Yadav, and Suvesh Mandal for their alleged role in pilferage and illegal extraction of stone at Sahibganjs Nimbu Pathar...

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