NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday conducted search operations at 16 premises across Bhopal, Hoshangabad and Betul districts in Madhya Pradesh, and Nagpur and Bhandara districts in Maharashtra, in connection with an investigation into illegal sand mining from sand ghats.
The raids were carried out under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
The federal probe agency initiated the investigation based on cases registered at Sadar and Ambazari police stations in Nagpur city against Narendra Pimple, Amol alias Guddu Khorgade, and others.
According to the ED, the accused were running an organised illegal sand mining operation using forged and fake Electronic Transit Permits (ETPs) to unlawfully extract, transport and sell sand. The investigation revealed that despite the closure of sand ghats around Nagpur, the sand mafia, in collusion with transporters and others, continued illegal excavation. They allegedly received fake royalties from Madhya Pradesh and used these documents to sell illegally mined sand in Nagpur.
The agency stated that the investigation uncovered a syndicate led by Rahul Khanna and Bablu Agarwal, which was involved in preparing false and fabricated ETPs in the names of legally leased sand ghats located in Madhya Pradesh.
These fake ETPs were sold to sand mafia operators in Nagpur for amounts ranging between Rs 6,000 and Rs 10,000 per permit. Using these forged permits, the operators transported illegally excavated sand from sand ghats in and around Nagpur. However, government records falsely showed that the sand was loaded from legally leased ghats in Madhya Pradesh. The vehicle numbers mentioned in the ETPs were also shown as valid and registered on the government portal.
Further analysis of GPS data revealed that the vehicles never travelled to the Madhya Pradesh ghats mentioned in the ETPs. Instead, during the same time period shown in the permits, the vehicles made repeated trips from illegal sand ghats in and around Nagpur.
Through this modus operandi, the accused earned substantial illegal profits and caused significant losses to the government by evading royalty payments and taxes. The Proceeds of Crime (PoC) generated from these activities are prima facie estimated to exceed Rs 30 crore, the ED said.
The search operations led to the seizure of unaccounted cash amounting to Rs 38.43 lakh, voluminous incriminating documents, records and property papers, and digital devices containing evidence of illegal sand mining and the generation of huge proceeds of crime, which were invested in the acquisition of properties.
The searches also resulted in the freezing of movable assets in the form of bank balances worth Rs 1.34 crore and the seizure of eight vehicles, including one BMW, two Toyota Fortuners, one Thar, two JCB machines and two Pocland machines.