News Brief
Akhilesh Yadav Summoned By CBI As Witness In Illegal Mining During His Tenure As Uttar Pradesh CM
Nishtha Anushree
Feb 28, 2024, 03:53 PM | Updated 03:53 PM IST
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Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav has been summoned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to appear tomorrow (29 February) in the Uttar Pradesh illegal mining case.
The summons comes a day after Yadav faced a setback in Rajya Sabha elections where only two of the three SP candidates could win as many SP MLAs cross-voted in favour of the BJP, whose eight candidates won.
According to India Today, the CBI issued a notice to Yadav under Section 160 of CrPC in a case of illegal mining in the Hamirpur district between 2012 and 2016. Notably, Yadav was UP's Chief Minister between 2012 and 2017.
The FIR, naming 11 people and unknown public servants for allowing illegal mining, is registered for offences of criminal conspiracy, theft, extortion, cheating and attempt to commit offence and misconduct.
The case was transferred to CBI in July 2016 on Allahabad High Court's order. The CBI then filed an FIR in January 2019 and is investigating whether the state authorities were in collusion with offenders or not.
The mining department was headed by Yadav from 2012 to June 2013. Illegal mining was reported in Shamli, Kaushambi, Fatehpur, Deoria, Saharanpur, Hamirpur and Siddharthnagar. However, for now, Yadav has been called as a witness.
There are allegations that some illegal mining sites were allocated by violating rules and regulations. This not only caused loss to the state's exchequer but also violated NGT orders.
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Nishtha Anushree is Senior Sub-editor at Swarajya. She tweets at @nishthaanushree.
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