Jaipur: The Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) Patna zonal office Friday carried out searches at eight locations across Bihar, Delhi and Rajasthan, which included four locations in Sriganganagar and one in Jaipur, as part of a money laundering investigation into an alleged illegal sand mining racket worth more than ₹131 crore in Bihar’s Banka district.The action, carried out under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), targeted Mahadev Enclave Pvt Ltd, a company allegedly controlled by Ashok Chandak and his son Raghav Chandak, residents of Sriganganagar in Rajasthan.Ashok Chandak is also known for his political background in Rajasthan. He contested the 2018 Rajasthan Assembly election from the Sriganganagar constituency on a Congress ticket but lost to Independent candidate Raj Kumar Gaur. Later, in the 2023 assembly election, his wife Karuna Ashok Chandak contested from the same constituency but was defeated by Jaideep Bihani of the BJP.Though the ED is yet to give details on the operations, sources said that the searches started Friday morning and continued till the evening. ED teams searched eight premises, including two in Banka and Patna in Bihar, one in Delhi-NCR, four in Sriganganagar and one in Jaipur. “Documents, digital devices, financial records and other evidence linked to the alleged proceeds of crime were being examined,” said an officer.According to the ED, Mahadev Enclave allegedly undertook large-scale illegal sand mining in Banka district of Bihar for several years without the knowledge or records of the Bihar Mining Department.To quantify the alleged illegal extraction, the ED’s Patna zonal office in Oct 2024 engaged IIT Patna to conduct a geospatial analysis of river sand ghats in Banka. The IIT Patna report allegedly found that between the financial years 2015-16 and 2022-23, the company illegally excavated sand valued at more than ₹131 crore.Based on these findings, the ED shared the information with the Bihar State Mining Corporation Ltd under Section 66(2) of the PMLA. Subsequently, the Bihar Mines and Geology department registered an FIR on Aug 21, 2025, alleging illegal mining and related offences. The present money laundering investigation stems from that FIR.The ED is probing whether the proceeds generated from the alleged illegal mining were laundered through financial transactions, investments and other business entities. The searches continued till Friday evening, with officials stating that further action would depend on the scrutiny of the seized documents and digital evidence.
