Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav summoned by CBI in 2019 mining case on February 29

New Delhi: The CBI has summoned Samajwadi Party chief and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav in a five-year-old illegal mining case as a witness for questioning on Thursday.

The agency's action comes days after the SP and Congress announced its seat sharing arrangement for Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Officials said the notice has been issued Section 160 of CrPC, asking Yadav to appear before investigators on February 29. The case in which he is summoned was registered in 2019.

"The SP is on the maximum target (of the BJP). In 2019, I got a notice in some matter as there was a Lok Sabha election then. Now, when the election is approaching again, I am getting a notice again. I know, when the election comes, notice will also come. Why this nervousness?. If in the past 10 years, you (BJP) have done a lot of work then why are you nervous?" he said at a media event in Lucknow.

The CBI probe is based on an Allahabad High Court order on the issuance of mining leases in alleged violation of e-tendering process. 

According to the case, public servants allowed illegal mining during 2012-16 when Yadav was the Chief Minister besides illegally renewing licences despite a ban by the National Green Tribunal on mining.

In 2016, the CBI had filed seven preliminary enquiries on the directions of the High Court. The CBI had then alleged that Yadav's office cleared 13 projects in a single day.

Yadav, who held the mining portfolio, had cleared 14 leases, of which 13 were cleared on 17 February, 2013, in violation of e-tendering process, it had claimed.

The CBI also claimed that these leases were granted by the district magistrate of Hamirpur after getting approval from the Chief Minister's Office in violation of its 2012 e-tender policy.

The agency conducted searches at 14 locations in January 2019 after registering an FIR against 11 people, including IAS officer B Chandrakala and Samajwadi Party MLC Ramesh Kumar Mishra among others to probe the alleged illegal mining of minor minerals in Hamirpur district during 2012-16.