Himachal: Case registered against stone crusher unit owned by Hamirpur MLA

Hamirpur (HP), Dec 9 (PTI) A case has been registered against a stone crusher unit owned by BJP MLA from Hamirpur Ashish Sharma for alleged cheating and forgery, police said on Tuesday.

It is alleged that the unit had done illegal mining and siphoned royalty worth over Rs 36.60 lakh which led to loss of Rs 36.60 lakh to the state exchequer. The allegations also involved misuse of 'X' and 'W' forms to sell the mined material, they said.

There are two kinds of mining permissions in Himachal Pradesh. In the first case, the mined material is extracted and sold directly to the consumer without crushing, in the other the material is extracted, taken to the crusher, crushed and sold.

It was alleged that in two years -- 2022-2023 and 2023 -2024 -- as much as 28,180 metric ton mining material was mined and transported in violation of norms.

The police also alleged that in 2022, over 17,572 metric ton was 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 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.

The probe had been initiated 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. PTI COR BPL NB NB