Ranchi, January 19: The CBI’s investigation into illegal mining at Lemon Hill in Sahibganj has been put on hold by the Jharkhand High Court. The government of Jharkhand filed a petition contesting the CBI’s FIR in this particular case. After hearing this on Friday, Justice Rajesh Kumar’s bench ordered the CBI to submit its response and halted the investigation. The case’s next hearing has been set for February 9.
Actually, at Lemon Hill in Sahibganj, a man by the name of Vijay Hansda had filed a petition calling for a CBI investigation. He claimed that illegal mining was taking place there with the support of CM Hemant Soren’s MLA representative Pankaj Mishra and others. Subsequently, he asked the court to dismiss the petition.
The High Court denied his request and instead mandated that the CBI look into the reality of illegal mining in Lemon Mountain. In addition, the petitioner Vijay Hansda and the accused of illicit mining were the subjects of a request for investigation made by the court to the CBI.
The CBI began a preliminary investigation, and on November 20, 2023, it filed a formal complaint regarding the illegal mining at Lemon Pahad.
The Jharkhand government filed a High Court challenge to the FIR. Although the state government claimed in its petition that the High Court had only mandated a preliminary inquiry, the CBI had nonetheless filed a formal complaint. Neither the state government’s nor the High Court’s approval was sought for this. This FIR is illegal in this particular situation.
Manoj Kumar, Ashok Kumar Yadav, Advocate General Rajeev Ranjan, and senior Supreme Court advocate Kapil Sibal appeared on behalf of the state government during the High Court hearing on this petition.