Pankaj Mishra’s troubles increase, CBI files FIR in illegal mining case

Ranchi: CBI has registered an FIR against Pankaj Mishra, Dahu Yadav and others in the illegal mining case at Lemon Hill in Sahibganj. Vijay Hansda has also been made a named accused. CBI has registered an FIR on the orders of the High Court. In the FIR, allegations have been made of illegal mining in Sahibganj, implicating ED officials in a false case and hatching a conspiracy to instigate witnesses.

It is noteworthy that Vijay Hansda had filed an FIR against Pankaj Mishra and others in Borio police station of Sahibganj, accusing them of doing illegal mining on Lemon Hill and using caste based words when refused. Also, the government bodyguard was accused of showing intimidation and assaulting the villagers. Hansda had named a total of eight people as accused in the FIR, including Pankaj Mishra, Vishnu Yadav, Pavitra Yadav, Sanjay Yadav.

After Vijay Hansda lodged an FIR, the police arrested him in a case registered against him and sent him to jail. ED interrogated him in jail under the FIR lodged by Hansda and on the basis of the statement given by him, made him a witness in the illegal mining case. Due to no action being taken in the FIR lodged at Borio police station, he filed a petition in the High Court demanding investigation of this FIR by an independent agency.

But after coming out of jail, he filed an IA to withdraw his petition. In this, the argument was presented that after getting the Vakalatnama signed by him for filing the bail petition, the petition demanding investigation was filed. Therefore, he wants to withdraw the original petition demanding investigation. However, after the hearing, the High Court ordered a CBI investigation into this entire episode.

After the order for CBI investigation, Vijay Hansda lodged an FIR against ED witness Mukesh Yadav and others in Dhurva police station. After registering the FIR, the police hurriedly recorded the statement of Hansda under section 164. In this, Hansda also accused ED officials. Mukesh Yadav filed a writ petition in the High Court against the case registered in Dhurva police station.

After the hearing, the High Court banned the coercive action in the light of the FIR lodged in Dhurva police station. CBI filed an affidavit in the court and confirmed the incident of snatching of phones of ED officials in the High Court premises. CBI also said in the affidavit that an FIR has been lodged at Dhurva police station on the instructions of High Court lawyer Sudhanshu Shekhar Chaudhary. Meanwhile, ED also investigated the denial of its witness Vijay Hansda and not appearing in the PMLA court for testimony. It was found that an IPS officer of the state was also involved in the conspiracy hatched to instigate against ED. The tickets for Vijay Hansda have been arranged by Sahibganj SP Naushad Alam.