New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has summoned Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren's press adviser Abhishek Prasad and Sahibganj Deputy Commissioner Ram Niwas Yadav for questioning in a money laundering investigation linked to alleged illegal mining in the state, official sources said.
Prasad alias Pintu has been asked to depose at the federal agency's Ranchi office on January 16, Yadav on January 11 and another person, Binod Singh, on January 15, they said.
The sources said their statements will be recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had raided their premises and those of Sahibganj Deputy Superintendent of Police Rajendra Dubey and some others on January 3.
The action was related to a case of "illegal stone mining prevalent in Sahibganj, having proceeds of crime of more than Rs 1,000 crore", the agency said.
"Rampant illegal mining activities were being done in the Sahibganj area and in order to ascertain the extent of this act, 20 joint inspections of illegal mining activities were carried out by the officers of the ED along with administrative, forest, mining and pollution control departments of the Jharkhand government," it said "The joint inspection has confirmed the instance of huge illegal mining as well as denudation of land and forest area leading to environmental hazards," the ED said.
The money laundering case stems from Jharkhand Police FIRs filed against Bishnu Yadav, Pavitra Yadav and Pankaj Mishra, one of the political advisers of Soren, and others. The case was later taken over by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) according to the directions of the Jharkhand High Court, the ED said.
It has been found in the probe that the "kingpin" of this instance of illegal mining was Pankaj Mishra. The ED had arrested him in July 2022 and he is currently lodged in a jail in judicial custody.
The federal agency said in a statement after the raids that apart from seizing "incriminating" documents and digital data, it also recovered Rs 36.99 lakh cash, including Rs 7.25 lakh from the camp office of Deputy Commissioner (DC) Ram Niwas Yadav.
Besides these, 19 cartridges of 9 mm bore, two of .380 mm and five empty cases of .45 pistols were also seized from the residential premises of the DC, it said.
Thirty "benami" bank accounts, whose documents were found during the day-long searches, have been frozen, it said.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Excpet for the headline, no editing has been done in the body by ABP Live.)