Himachal Police files illegal mining case against stone crusher unit owned by BJP MLA Ashish Sharma
CHANDIGARH: Himachal Pradesh Police have registered an FIR against a stone crusher unit owned by BJP MLA Ashish Sharma in the Hamirpur district for alleged large-scale illegal mining, forgery, cheating and royalty evasion dating back to 2023. Sources said that a report (FIR No. 77/25) was registered at the Sujanpur police station against M/s Mahadevi Stone Crusher under the sections of 379 (theft), 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) on December 4. The FIR was filed following a confidential report submitted to the Superintendent of Police of Hamirpur on September 9 highlighting suspected illegal extraction and misuse of government-mandated mineral transportation documents by Mahadevi Stone Crusher. Sources claimed that serious discrepancies were found which pointed towards deliberate manipulation of the records to facilitate illegal extraction. The firm alleged misuse of 'W Forms' which are meant for transporting minerals from lease sites to the stone crushers for direct commercial sale outside the plant. Due to this irregularity reportedly 28,180 metric tonnes of material was allegedly illegally transported. Sources further alleged that between August and December 2022 the crusher operated without depositing mandated royalty with the mining department and during that period it is claimed that 17,572 MT of mineral was produced. The illegal extraction is estimated to be around 45,752 causing estimated loss of Rs 36.60 lakh to the state exchequer. It is learnt that the stone crusher unit at Ree has remained non-operational since February 2024. The MLA has secured interim bail in the case and the next hearing is on December 10. MLA Ashish Sharma said that the case registered against was politically motivated and there was no wrongdoing. I would come clean out of all such false and baseless cases, he said and added that he would file a defamation case in the matter for maligning his reputation. Superintendent of Police of Hamirpur, Balbir Singh Thakur said that the investigations had been initiated in the case and in the functioning of the crusher which was registered in 2022 in name of Ashish Sharma. The police had sufficient documentary evidence in the matter. In 2022 Sharma won as independent MLA from Hamirpur assembly segment. In March last year, Sharma and two other independent legislators resigned, and their resignations were accepted in June. Sharma along with the two joined the BJP and were given tickets by the saffron party in July 2024 to contest the by elections. He won defeating the Congress candidate Pushpinder Verma.
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