NEW DELHI: The CBI conducted searches at 16 locations in three states including poll-bound Jharkhand in connection with the state’s illegal stone mining scam in Nimbu Pahar in which an alleged political aide of Chief Minister Hemant Soren is under the scanner, officials said.The central probe agency conducted searches in Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar.It launched an operation at 11 locations in Jharkhand’s Sahibganj, three locations in Ranchi, and one each in Patna and Kolkata at the premises of suspects and their associates, the officials said.The assembly polls in Jharkhand will be take place on November 13 and 20 in which ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and the INDIA bloc will face the BJP and its NDA allies.The CBI has recovered Rs 50 lakh cash, one kilogram gold and one kilogram of silver besides property documents worth crores during the searches, they said.The agency had registered the case on November 23, 2023 on the directions of the Jharkhand High Court.In its FIR registered on November 20 last year, the Ranchi unit of the CBI has booked Soren’s alleged political aide Pankaj Mishra, Pavitra Kumar Yadav, Rajesh Yadav, Sanjay Kumar Yadav, Bacchu Yadav, Sanjay Yadav and Suvesh Mandal.They are allegedly involved in the “pilferage and illegal extraction” of stone at Nimbu Pahar in Sahibganj.
Source link
