India
The CBI reached Chandrakala's residence in Lucknow's Hussainganj on Saturday morning and conducted a raid. The searches were spread across multiple districts including Jalaun, Hamirpur, Lucknow and also in the national capital
New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday carried out searches at 12 locations in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi in connection with illegal sand mining case, including the residence of IAS officer B Chandrakala.
The 2008-batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre is famous for being an ‘anti-corruption crusader’.
The CBI reached Chandrakala's residence in Lucknow's Hussainganj on Saturday morning and conducted a raid. The searches were spread across multiple districts including Jalaun, Hamirpur, Lucknow and also in the national capital.
The IAS officer is a social media ‘celebrity’ of sorts, with 9 lakh followers on Twitter and multiple fan accounts to her name on various networking sites. She rose to fame when a video of her reprimanding another officer for their disappointing quality of work surfaced on social media. She had also threatened a journalist over a phone call.
The CBI raided Chandrakala’s residence in relation to an illegal mining case – where the IAS officer allegedly ignored all provisions and awarded the tender when she was the district magistrate in Hamirpur and the Samajwadi Party government was in power.
The CBI seized several important documents from Chandrakala’s residence. As per the allegations against her in 2012, the IAS officer awarded 50 mining leases without e-tendering. In 2015, a petition was filed in the Allahabad high court on illegal mining. On October 16, 2015, the Allahabad high court had cancelled all the mining leases and declared them illegal in Hamirpur.
Chandrakala was posted as the chief development officer of Allahabad (later renamed as Prayagraj) and in April 2012, she became the district magistrate of Hamirpur. After this stint, her post was shuffled again and she was made Mathura’s district magistrate in 2014. She was the second female district magistrate of Mathura, but before completing her tenure, she was again posted as the district magistrate of Bulandshahr.
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