Ex-Indore MLA & BJP leader Sanjay Shukla, 3 others get Rs 140 crore notice for 'illegal mining'

Indore: The Indore district administration has issued notices to former MLA Sanjay Shukla, who has quit the Congress and joined the BJP, and three others proposing a fine of Rs 140.60 crore for alleged illegal mining of 'murum' (mixed) soil and stones, officials said on Wednesday.

The mining department has unearthed illegal mining in two places of 5.50 hectares and 3.40 hectares in Baroli village adjoining Indore in Madhya Pradesh, they said.

A fine of Rs 140.60 crore is proposed to be imposed on Shukla and three others under the Madhya Pradesh Minerals (Prevention of Illegal Mining, Transport and Storage) Rules 2022 for this illegal mining, the officials said.

Besides Shukla, the other respondents in the notice are his brother Rajendra Shukla, president of the Eden Garden Housing Cooperative Society Limited, and Baroli village resident Meharban Singh Rajput, they said.

According to the notice, about 4 lakh cubic metres of 'murum' and 2.23 lakh cubic metres of stones were illegally mined from the two places in Baroli village and on this basis, a fine of Rs 140.60 crore is proposed to be imposed on the respondents.

The former MLA and the three other persons have been asked to appear before the court of an additional district magistrate (ADM) of the administration on April 19, failing which ex-parte action will be taken in the case, the officials said.

Asked about the matter, Sanjay Shukla told PTI, "I have not received any notice (on illegal mining) so far. I will be able to say something on this only after I get the notice."

In the 2023 MP assembly elections, senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya defeated the then sitting Congress MLA Sanjay Shukla by 57,939 votes from Indore-1 seat.

Nearly three months after the poll defeat, Shukla quit the Congress on March 9.

Vijayvargiya, currently a state cabinet meeting, was among the leaders who welcomed him in the BJP during a programme organised in Bhopal.