New Delhi, July 17: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Patna has launched a significant operation related to a money laundering case involving illegal sand mining in Bihar’s Banka district.
The ED initiated searches under Section 17 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. This case is linked to alleged illegal sand mining conducted by Mahadev Enclave Private Limited.
Investigations reveal that Mahadev Enclave Private Limited is controlled by the Chandak family from Ganganagar, Rajasthan. The company is operated by Ashok Chandak and his son Raghav Chandak. The ED’s inquiry has uncovered that the company engaged in large-scale illegal sand extraction in Banka district. Allegations suggest that the state’s mining department failed to report this illegal activity in a timely manner and did not take effective action.
To advance the investigation, the ED in Patna requested a geospatial analysis of sand ghats in the rivers of Banka district from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Patna on October 1, 2024. Analysis of the IIT Patna report revealed that the company violated regulations by extracting significant amounts of sand. The report estimates that the value of illegally extracted sand between the fiscal years 2015-16 and 2022-23 exceeds ₹131 crore.
The ED shared this information with the Managing Director of Bihar State Mining Corporation Limited under Section 66(2) of the PMLA. Following this, an FIR was registered by the Bihar government’s Department of Mines and Geology. The investigation is currently ongoing.
The ED is conducting searches at a total of eight locations across Bihar, Delhi-NCR, and Rajasthan. These include locations in Banka and Patna in Bihar, one in Delhi, four in Ganganagar, and one in Jaipur, Rajasthan. According to ED officials, documents and other evidence related to the case are being scrutinized during these operations.
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