The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has asked former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav to appear before it in a High Court-referred case related to illegal sand mining.
The former chief minister has been asked to join the investigation as a witness before the CBI in Delhi on 29 February, news agency ANI cited CBI sources.
The summon by CBI comes to Akhilesh Yadav as a witness for questioning comes five years after registering the case. The notice has been issued under section 160 of CrPC, which allows a police officer to summon witnesses in a probe.
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The case pertains to the issuance of mining leases in alleged violation of e-tendering process. The Allahabad High Court had ordered the probe.
It is alleged that public servants allowed illegal mining during 2012-16, when Yadav was chief minister, and illegally renewed licences despite a ban by the National Green Tribunal on mining.
The officers allegedly allowed theft of minerals, extorted money from lease-holders and drivers.
The CBI had reportedly filed seven preliminary enquiries in 2016 on the directions of the Allahabad High Court to probe the case of illegal mining of minor minerals.
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The CBI had alleged that the then chief minister Akhilesh Yadav's office had cleared 13 projects in a single day, news agency PTI cited officials as saying.
They had said that Akhilesh Yadav, who also held the mining portfolio for sometime, had cleared 14 leases, of which 13 were cleared on February 17, 2013, in violation of e-tendering process.
The CBI claimed that on February 17, 2013, the leases were granted by the district magistrate of Hamirpur, B Chandrakala, after getting approval from the chief minister's office in violation of its 2012 e-tender policy, which was ratified by the Allahabad High Court on January 29 that year.
(With PTI inputs)
