The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed an affidavit in National Green Tribunal (NGT) in the illegal mining case. In the affidavit, ED has said that Pankaj Mishra doing the illegal mining worth Rs 1000 crores in the Santhal areas. He laundered the money received during this period through the accounts of his associates and presented it as spotless property. ED has informed NGT that further investigation will continue under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002. ED has said that the premises of Pankaj Mishra and his associates were searched on July 8, 2022. From July 25 to July 29, 2022, ED conducted a joint verification and survey of the mines by a team of officials and employees of several concerned states. The inspection confirmed illegal mining and their illegal transportation. Till date illegal mining worth more than Rs 1000 crore has been done. ED has said in the affidavit that when the ED started investigation by converting the case registered against former Chief Minister Hemant Sorens MLA representative Pankaj Mishra and a leader in Barharwa police station of Sahibganj district into ECIR, then large-scale illegal mining and transportation was found in the district. The case was caught. It was directly and indirectly operated by Pankaj Mishra. The next hearing of the case will be held in NGT on May 13. It has been found in the probe that the "kingpin" of this instance of illegal mining was Pankaj Mishra. The ED had arrested him in July 2022 and he is currently lodged in a jail in judicial custody. Mishra has also approached Supreme Court to challenge the order of the Jharkhand High Court to order a CBI probe into illegal stone mining at Nimbu pahad in Sahibganj. The Jharkhand High Court on August 18, had ordered a CBI probe into the Rs 1000 crore illegal mining case which took place in Sahibganj and adjoining areas of Santhal Paragana.

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