ED books two IAS officers in Saharanpur mining scam

LUCKNOW: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has booked two IAS officers and 10 others in the Saharanpur mining scam.
Ajai Kumar Singh, IAS officer of 1998 batch, and Pawan Kumar of 2008 batch, both currently kept on waiting by the state government have been charged under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) along with 10 private persons by ED.
They had also been booked by the CBI on October 1 for violation of government orders in the allocation of sand mining leases in the Saharanpur district.
ED officials said as many as 13 mining leases were granted from 2012 to 2015 in contravention of rules.
Ajai Kumar served as DM Saharanpur from March 28, 2012 to February 12, 2014, while Pawan Kumar served in the same capacity from July 20, 2015 to August 6, 2016.
Official's privy to the probe said the Allahabad high court had on May 31, 2012 cancelled mine lease allotment procedures and started the 'e-tendering' process.
Despite the court order, in November 2012, then DM, Ajai Kumar Singh, abused his official position and granted lease of of 13 sand mines for a period of three years to the aforesaid 10 persons in criminal conspiracy with them.
On October 8, 2015, then Saharanpur DM, Pawan Kumar further renewed the leases for three years against the HC order.
Acting on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on July 28, 2016, the Allahabad high court had asked for a CBI probe into the illegal mining and plundering of natural resources in the state.
So far, ED has registered PMLA cases in the mining scams which took place in Hamirpur, Deoria, Fatehpur and Saharanpur districts of Uttar Pradesh.
It has also sent notices to six IAS officers, including B Chandrakala, Vivek, D S Upadhyaya, Jiwesh Nandan, Santosh Kumar and Abhay Singh.