They act as BJP’s cell, says Akhilesh Yadav on CBI summons in land mining case in UP

Reacting to the CBI summons to him in the mining case before elections, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday said they (CBI) act as a cell of the BJP.

Attacking the BJP, Yadav mentioned Chandigarh mayoral poll and alleged that the BJP’s “theft” and “dacoity” of votes came to the fore as election was held through ballot and CCTV was there.

Yadav was talking to reporters on the sidelines of the PDA conference in which office-bearers of backward, minority and Dalit cells of the party were present.

“Summons before elections... they (CBI) act as ‘prakoshth’ (cell) of the BJP,” Yadav said while here at the party office.

“Jo kagaz aaya tha, humne uska jawab de diya hai” (I have given a reply to the paper that I got), he said.

He said in the Lok Sabha elections, the people of Uttar Pradesh will remove the BJP government at the Centre.

On investments in the state, the former chief minister said the dreams of investment shown by the government were not fulfilled.

“In the BJP regime, inflation is at its peak, law and order has gone down and women are most unsafe in the present regime in the state,” he said, adding that the need of the hour is to make the people aware of what is going on.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav will not appear before the CBI on Thursday for questioning in an illegal mining case registered five years ago in which he is a witness, party sources said.

A senior party leader said Yadav has “expressed his inability to appear before the CBI on Monday and asked the agency why it did not seek any information from him in the case for the past five years”.

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister has, however, assured all help to the CBI in the probe, the leader said.

In a notice issued under section 160 of CrPC, the CBI has asked Yadav to appear before it on February 29, officials said. The section allows a police officer to summon witnesses in a probe.

“He is not the accused. He is a witness,” a senior official in the know of the development said.

The cases in which Yadav is summoned pertain to the issuance of mining leases in alleged violation of the e-tendering process. The Allahabad High Court had ordered the probe.

It is alleged that public servants allowed illegal mining during 2012-16, the period when Yadav was chief minister, and illegally renewed licences despite a ban on mining by the National Green Tribunal.