ED summons Jharkhand CM's press advisor in illegal mining case; questioning tomorrow
Jul 31, 2022
Ranchi (Jharkhand) [India], July 31 : The Enforcement Directorate on Sunday summoned the press advisor to Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and asked him to appear before the agency for questioning in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with illegal mining.
CM Soren's press advisor Abhishek Prasad alias Pintu is likely to be interrogated by the ED at its Ranchi zonal office on Monday (August 1).
In its ongoing extensive operation in Jharkhand, ED has already arrested Pankaj Mishra who is the MLA representative of the Chief Minister in his Assembly Constituency Berhait.
According to the ED sources, Mishra took Abhishek Prasad's name during the interrogation and revealed a few important things, following which the ED summoned CM's press advisor.
Mishra was arrested on July 19, after almost eight long hours of interrogation. The Special PMLA court had sent him to ED custody twice for six days each.
Meanwhile, several teams of ED conducted more searches in Sahebganj resulting into the seizure of one inland vessel namely M.V. Infralink-III.
"In connection with the ongoing investigation in the illegal mining, extortion etc in Jharkhand, Enforcement Directorate (ED) has further seized one inland vessel namely M.V.Infralink- III bearing registration number WB 1809 during a search conducted on July 26," ED said on Wednesday.
"The said inland vessel was being operated illegally without having any permit from Sukargarh Ghat, Sahebganj. It was being operated at the behest of Rajesh Yadav aka Dahu Yadav in collusion with Pankaj Mishra and others for transporting illegally mined stone chips/stone boulders," it added.
The agency further disclosed that the estimated cost of the vessel would be around Rs 30 crore.
"This was preceded by freezing of two illegally operated stone crushers of Maa Amba Stone Works operated by Bishnu Yadav and Pavitra Yadav along with the freezing of three HYVA trucks found at MauzaMajhikola, Sahebganj carrying illegally quarried stone chips/boulders without having any mining challans during a search conducted on July 25 by the ED," it added further.
