Ranchi (Jharkhand) [India], August 4 (ANI): Enforcement Directorate on Thursday arrested Bachchu Yadav, a close associate of Pankaj Mishra who was arrested earlier by the agency, in connection with an illegal mining case in Jharkhand.

His residence and other locations have already been raided by the ED. Bachchu is one of the close associates of Pankaj Mishra, the MLA representative of Chief Minister Hemant Soren.

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On July 8, ED had conducted searches at 19 locations linked to Pankaj Mishra and his close associates Dahoo Yadav and Bachchu Yadav in Sahibganj, Rajmahal and Mirza Chauki.

Earlier, on July 19, the ED arrested Pankaj Mishra, who is the MLA representative of Soren in his Assembly constituency Berhait.

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Dahoo Yadav had joined the investigation before the arrest of Pankaj Mishra. Afterwards, he went incommunicado and didn't turn up despite a few notices from ED. Bachchu was arrested today.

In the same case, Jharkhand CM's press advisor Abhishek Prasad is being grilled by the federal agency. He has been called to join the investigation on Friday for the third consecutive day.

Previously, the ED had seized and frozen cash amounting to Rs 13.32 crore lying in 50 bank accounts, Rs 5.34 crore unaccounted cash, illegally operated stone crushers and also seized various incriminating documents which it claimed belonged to Pankaj Mishra, Dahoo Yadav and their associates, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 after searches at multiple locations in Sahibganj, Berhait, Rajmahal, Mirza Chauki and Barharwa on July 8.

The agency further disclosed that the estimated cost of the vessel would be around Rs 30 crore.

"This was preceded by freezing of two illegally operated stone crushers of Maa Amba Stone Works operated by Bishnu Yadav and Pavitra Yadav along with the freezing of three HYVA trucks found at MauzaMajhikola, Sahebganj carrying illegally quarried stone chips/boulders without having any mining challans during a search conducted on July 25 by the ED," it added further. (ANI)

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