CBI Conducts Raids at 22 Locations in UP, Delhi Over Mining Scam

File photo of Gayatri Prajapati touching the feet of Samajwadi party patriarch, Mulayam Singh Yadav. 

(Photo: IANS)

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is carrying out searches at 22 locations in Uttar Pradesh and the national capital, including three residential premises of former UP Minister Gayatri Parajapti, in connection with the illegal mining scam, officials told PTI on Wednesday, 12 June.

Prajapati had held the mining portfolio during the Samajwadi Party government under Akhilesh Yadav, they said.

Prajapati is lodged in jail since March 2017, on charges of gang raping a woman and is also an accused in the illegal mining case.

Prajapati's bail application has been turned down by the High Court twice.

The CBI team reached the former Minister's house in the morning and began their searches. The team is also interrogating his family members on matters related to unaccounted wealth.

It might be recalled that in January 2017, a woman had alleged that Prajapati, then a Minister, had called her and her daughter to his residence on the pretext of giving a mining contract. According to the woman, Prajapati and his men then raped the two.

(With input from PTI and IANS)