Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav, on Thursday, skipped the CBI summons in the mining scam case and instead sent a letter to the agency.
According to sources, the former UP chief minister, in his letter, asked the CBI to interrogate him through video conferencing and record his statement.
Akhilesh has also confirmed that he had sent the written reply to the CBI summons.
According to the Sources, Akhilesh wrote to the agency, “I am ready to cooperate in the investigation. I can connect from Lucknow through video conferencing.”
In his letter, he questioned the CBI as to why the notice was sent ahead of the elections. Why no information (about the matter) was sought in the past five years since 2019? What does the CBI want to know from him in this matter?
The CBI notice to the SP chief came in connection with an FIR registered over alleged illegal mining in Hamirpur from 2012 to 2016 when he was the chief minister of the state.
It was reported that Akhilesh had been summoned as a witness and not as an accused.
The SP president, while talking to media persons, alleged that the investigating agencies are working like a BJP cell. “CBI notice has come, and a reply has been sent. You guys should find out what is written in the letter from the person who sent the notice. The work of leaking is done by BJP, not us,” he told the scribes.
Reacting to the cross-voting of SP MLAs in the Rajya Sabha elections, Akhilesh rued, “Those who talk sweetly in front of us cheat us. How would we know about them?”
He said Manoj Pandey should be made deputy chief minister.
On the statement of the rebel MLAs, Akhilesh Yadav said, “We did not stop anyone from having darshan of Ram Lalla. These people are making false statements.”
He said the BJP is weak in the elections, hence the CBI notices to the Opposition leaders.
Earlier, Akhilesh Yadav attended a PDA meeting at the party headquarters here on Thursday.