Ranchi: ED had raided 20 locations of Amba Prasad and people associated with him for extortion, levy collection, illegal sand mining and land grabbing. ED said on Thursday that under the provisions of PMLA, 2002, a search operation was conducted at 20 places in Ranchi and Hazaribagh of Jharkhand related to Yogendra Sao, Amba Prasad, MLA and their other family members and associates.
During the search operation, Rs 35 lakh, digital devices, fake tickets of circle offices, banks, handwritten receipts, diaries, various incriminating documents and evidence related to illegal sand mining in the state of Jharkhand have been recovered. All have been recovered and confiscated.
Yogendra Sao’s son Ankit Raj is involved in illegal sand business. It is said that before the raids on his premises could begin, he ran away with some documents from his office. Despite this, during the raid at his hideout, many registers related to illegal buying and selling of sand were seized. Ankit Raj or any family member of Yogendra do not have valid documents for the settlement of Balu Ghat or its business.
Preliminary investigation of the document has revealed that Ankit Raj has been doing illegal business of sand for a long time. The income from illegal sand trade has been invested in other sectors. During the investigation, ED also got information that the illegal trade of sand was under the patronage of MLA Amba Prasad.
An FIR has also been registered against the MLA by the district administration for driving away tractors laden with illegal sand from the police station. ED started investigation on the basis of more than 15 FIRs filed by Jharkhand Police against Yogendra Sao, his family members and his associates.
It is alleged in the FIR that Yogendra Sao, Amba Prasad along with their associates are involved in various types of criminal activities like extortion, collection of levy, illegal sand mining, land grabbing as a result of which they have earned income.