Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav may not appear before the Central Bureau of Investigation today in connection with the illegal mining case, sources in the part said as reported by news agency PTI. The former Chief Minister was summoned by the agency on Wednesday for questioning in the case which was registered by years ago. Akhilesh was a witness in the case.
Akhilesh Yadav is scheduled to attend a meeting of PDA "Picchda (backward classes), Dalit and Alpsankhyak (minorities)" at the party office on Thursday and has no other plans, the sources added.
Samajwadi Party's backward wing state president Rajpal Kashyap told PTI, "Akhileshji will attend a meeting of PDA at the party office today." "He is not going anywhere. He will be attending a meeting in Lucknow," Samajwadi Party spokesperson Rajendra Chowdhury said.
Speaking on the CBI notice to the party chief, he said, "I don't have detailed information regarding this. But it is sure, he is not going to Delhi today."
Akhilesh Yadav was sent a notice issued under section 160 of CrPC, which allows the police to summon witnesses in a probe. He was asked by the agency to appear before it on February 29.
"He is not the accused. He is a witness," a senior official in the know of the development had told PTI.
The case is linked to the issuance of mining leases that allegedly violated the e-tendering process. The Allahabad High Court had ordered the probe.
It was alleged that public servants allowed illegal mining during 2012-16 during which Akhilesh Yadav was the chief minister. It was also said that licences were illegally renewed despite a ban by the National Green Tribunal.
Reacting to the notice in the cases registered in 2019, Yadav attacked the BJP, saying, "The SP is on the maximum target (of the BJP). In 2019, I got a notice in some matters as there were Lok Sabha elections then. Now, when the election is approaching again, I am getting a notice again." "I know, when the election comes, notice will also come. Why this nervousness? If you (BJP) have done a lot of work in the past 10 years, why are you nervous?" he posed.