Illegal sand mining case: CBI seizes huge amount of cash from UP's Bulandshahr District Magistrate's residence while conducting a search

The Central Bureau of Investigation has recovered a huge amount of cash at the residence of Bulandshahr DM Abhay Singh during a search while probing an alleged illegal sand mining case, sources said.

The probing team has taken a machine to count currency notes in his residence, sources said. But the CBI officials have refused to divulge the details of the amount of cash seized until now.

The sources from CBI have said that the machine has been taken inside to count the currency recovered so far and they will take some time to reveal the amount that has been seized till now.

The CBI is conducting searches at 12 locations including Bulandshahar, Lucknow, Fatehpur, Azamgarh, Allahabad, Noida, Gorakhpur, Deoria etc in two separate cases related to alleged illegal mining, the sources added. One case has been registered against Abhay, then DM, Fatehpur (Uttar Pradesh) and others, and the other case has been registered against Vivek, then DM, Deoria (Uttar Pradesh) and others, the sources said. 

As per details available at present through sources, cash of around Rs.47 lakh was recovered from the premises of then DM, Fatehpur (presently posted as DM, Bulandshehar); cash of around Rs 10 lakh from the premises of  Devi Sharan Upadhyay, then ADM, Deoria (presently posted as CDO, Azamgarh) and some documents related to properties from the premises of then DM, Deoria (presently posted as Director, Training & Employment, Lucknow).

Below are the excerpts from the FIRs lodged in both the cases: 

Uttar Pradesh has seen a spate of criminal incidents including those about a motorcycle gang terrorising the neighbourhood of Prahlad Nagar in Meerut leading to alleged exodus of Hindu families as well as the vandalism of a temple in Muzaffarnagar.

Alleged exodus of Hindu families owing to hooligans

The sources say that the residents have claimed that women have been harassed by certain anti-social elements repeatedly and reportedly gun firing can be heard during night time. The same was reiterated by UP Labour Minister Sunil Bharala who spoke to seven families in the area. Republic TV also accessed exclusive, chilling CCTV visuals which showed the hooliganism of men on two-wheelers, raising gunshots in the locality. The CCTV visuals accessed from June 24 show men riding on two-wheelers with guns in their hands. In a video, they can be seen firing gunshots in the air in broad daylight. 

WATCH: Uttar Pradesh Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya Makes Shocking Statement On Meerut Exodus, Calls It 'minor Incident'

Temple vandalised in Muzaffarnagar's Khatauli 

A temple in Khatauli in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar was attacked by a miscreant on Thursday. The attack led to tension in the area but timely action by police prevented violence. Hindu groups from the area caught the man and sent him to the police.  The police took the attacker into custody.

The attacker is from Bulandshahr and came to the area to attend a congregation. He broke into the temple and vandalised the idols kept inside.

The police are checking if the attack was linked to the Delhi vandalism incident. There were riots in Muzaffarnagar in 2013. The police think that the incident in Khatauli could have been a conspiracy to instigate violence.

WATCH | After Delhi, another temple vandalised in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar; police suspect conspiracy