A case has been registered against a stone crusher unit for alleged cheating and forgery. This unit is being owned by BJP MLA from Hamirpur Ashish Sharma, the police informed on Tuesday. As per the allegations, illegal mining and siphoning of royalty worth over Rs 36.60 lakh were done at the unit. This led to a loss of Rs 36.60 lakh to the state exchequer.
The allegations also involved the misuse of 'X' and 'W' forms for selling the mined material, officials reported.
In Himachal Pradesh, there are only two kinds of mining permissions. In the first case, the mined material is extracted and sold directly to the consumer without crushing, in the second, the material is extracted, taken to the crusher, crushed and sold.
The case in detail —
It was alleged that in two years, 2022-2023 and 2023 -2024, as much as 28,180 metric tons of mining material were mined and transported in violation of norms. As alleged by the police that in 2022, over 17,572 metric tons were produced and transported as per the form 'G', but royalty was not submitted.
The Sujanpurtira police on December 4 registered a case under the Indian Penal Code sections 420 (Cheating, dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (Forgery for the purpose of cheating), 379 (Punishment for theft), and 120 (Concealing design to commit offence punishable with imprisonment), they said.
The MLA has secured interim bail in the case, and the next hearing is on December 10. An investigation has been launched in the case, and sufficient documentary evidence was available, said Superintendent of Police (SP) Hamirpur Balbir Singh Thakur.
When contacted, the BJP MLA said the allegations are politically motivated, and he would file a defamation case in the matter for maligning his reputation.
"I would come clean out of all such fake and baseless cases," Sharma said.
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