Lucknow, Jan 5: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), on Saturday, conducted raids at 12 different places in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi including at the residence of senior Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer B Chandrakala in connection with the mining scam in Bundelkhand region during the previous Samajwadi Party regime.
Official sources said that raids were conducted at the residence of the IAS officer, a MLC and some contractors in Lucknow, Noida, Hamirpur, Jalaun and Kanpur.
The CBI team was reported to have registered FIR in the scam and after the raid,the agency can go ahead with the arrest of the accused.
The CBI team also raided the residences of SP MLC Ramesh Mishra and former district panchayat chairman of Hamirpur , Sanjeev Dikshit.
The CBI team, about 15 in number, raided IAS officer's flat number 101 in Safaire apartment in the state capital in the morning and seized several documents stacked inside the flat. The raid at the 2008 batch IAS officer, who is on a study leave and was not present at the residence, was completed in three hours. But the raiding official refused to divulge anything to the media after completing the raid.
The raids were conducted in connection with the mining scam in Hamirpur in 2012. Ms Chandrakala, the then District Magistrate of Hamirpur, is accused of allotting 60 mining leases illegally to some SP leaders. The IAS officer was reported to have given the leases without e-tendering as per the norms.
The CBI also raided the residences and offices of two big mining contractors of Hamirpur and Jalaun and seized several documents. The sleuths checked everything inside the house and interrogated the family members.
A petition was filed in the Allahabad High Court in 2015 about the irregularities in awarding the mining lease by the Hamirpur district authorities. The HC ordered for CBI probe on July 28, 2016.
Earlier last month, the CBI team had stayed in Hamirpur for a week and investigated the matter after which the raid was conducted today at the residence of the IAS officer.
CBI raids at 12 places including a Senior IAS Officer's residence
The raids conducted were in the connection with the Mining Scam in Bundelkhand region
