Illegal Mining Scam Accused Abhay Singh’s Uncle Says He Assaulted Him, Held Gun to His Head

Lucknow: Abhay Singh, 2007 batch IAS officer and illegal mining scam accused, has been accused of assaulting and threating his maternal uncle (mama) over a property dispute in Pratapgarh on Friday.

Abhay’s uncle Ravi Singh, who is a local BJP leader, has claimed that he was sitting at the counter of his hotel, City Palace, when his brother-in-law Amrendra Bahadur Singh, Amrendra’s son Abhay and his wife stormed into the hotel along with five to six men and started threatening him.

Ravi Singh alleged that Abhay whipped out his licensed revolver at one point and pointed it at him, and then started beating up the hotel staff. He added that the police is not registering case against his nephew despite he having given a written complaint.

While the police is yet to act on Ravi Singh’s claim, a case against him and a few others has been registered over a written complaint by Abhay Singh’s father Amrendra Bahadur Singh. The police have claimed they have not received any formal complaint from Ravi Singh.

Abhay Singh had made headlines in the past when the CBI recovered 47 lakh cash from his official residence during his posting as the district magistrate of Bulandshehar.

The CBI had registered two cases in the Uttar Pradesh mining scam, naming former minister Gayatri Prajapati and four IAS officers as accused, and carried out searches at 12 locations in the state. The agency's FIR names Prajapati, a former minister in the Samajwadi Party government, and then principal secretary in the geology and mining department Jiwesh Nandan, special secretary Santosh Kumar, then district magistrates Abhay Singh and Vivek.

Abhay, who was the Bulandshahr District Magistrate has been put on the waiting list after the CBI had carried out searches at various places in the state including the premises of Abhay Singh and others.

The case pertains to the alleged irregularities in grant of mining leases in violation of mandatory e-tendering policy introduced by the state government on May 31, 2012, which was upheld by the Allahabad High Court on January 29, 2013.