UP: CBI books Prajapati, 4 IAS officers in illegal mining cases

New Delhi: The CBI has registered two new cases pertaining to alleged illegal mining that occurred during Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav's tenure as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 2012-2017.

Booking a total of four IAS officers and Gayatri Prajapati, a former mining minister in the Samajwadi Party government, the CBI conducted raids at 12 places in connection with the cases on Wednesday.

The probe agency raided the residence and offices of Abhay, IAS (UP: 2007), then District Magistrate of Fatehpur district, who is currently the DM of Bulandshahr district, in addition to premises of then principal secretary Jiwesh Nandan, IAS (UP: 1985); premises of Santosh Kumar, IAS (UP: 2005), then special secretary; premises of Vivek, IAS (UP: 2009), then DM of Deoria district; and Devi Sharan Upadhyay, PCS (UP: 1997), then additional DM of Deoria; and other mining officials of the Akhilesh Yadav government in UP.

From the residence of Abhay, agency sleuths recovered around Rs 49 lakh in cash; and around Rs 10 lakh in cash from the residence of Upadhyay. As far as recoveries from Vivek's residence is concerned, the probe agency found property documents pertaining to plots at Ansal Villa in Lucknow and a flat in Noida.

Upadhyay is currently the Chief Development Officer in Azamgarh and Vivek is the Mission Director for the UP Skills Development Mission.

However, speaking to reporters late on Wednesday night, Abhay said that he has cooperated with agency sleuths throughout and intends to do so as the case progresses. He added that his tenure as DM in Fatehpur was very short and that he has provided the CBI with documentation of all his decisions pertaining to issuing mining leases.

According to the probe agency's FIR in the case, two private persons - Shiv Singh and Sukhraj Singh had conspired with senior officials of the Geology and Mining Ministry in the UP government at the time, including then Mining Minister Prajapati, Nandan, Kumar, and then DM of Fatehpur, Abhay to renew up to three mining leases. In the other case, Phool Badan Nishad had approached the High Court of Allahabad to renew two of his mining leases in Deoria. But after the court had denied the renewal, Nishad allegedly conspired with Vivek, then DM of Deoria, Upadhyay, then ADM, and several other mining officials to get his mining leases renewed for a period of three years. Vivek and other public officials allegedly ignored the rule of using the e-tendering process for granting mining leases to renew leases of Nishad and Sharad Yadav.

While this is the first time that Prajapati has been named as accused in the illegal mining case, the CBI had last month raided three of his premises in Amethi in connection with another illegal mining case in Hamirpur district.

The agency had formed an SIT to probe allegations of illegal mining in Uttar Pradesh during Akhilesh Yadav's tenure as CM following an Allahabad High Court directive. The High Court had ordered the probe after hearing a PIL in the matter. Subsequently, the CBI had opened seven preliminary enquiries pertaining to alleged irregularities in awarding and renewing of mining leases in Fatehpur, Deoria, Kausambhi, Shamli, Hamirpur, and two other districts.

While the recent FIR's relate to mining lease irregularities in Fatehpur and Deoria, the CBI had converted three other PEs into FIRs earlier; two in 2017 and one in January 2019.

These searches come as part of CBI's special drive that started on Tuesday, when agency sleuths also raided BSP supremo Mayawati's former secretary Netram's residence in connection with the alleged Rs 1,179 crore UP sugar mills scam. In a late night development, IAS officers Abhay and Vivek were both let go from their post of DM Bulandshahr and Mission Director of UP Skills Development Mission respectively, according to sources. Upadhyay has also been let go of his post as CDO in Azamgarh, the sources further mentioned.