In a significant crackdown during Maharashtra's election season, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has launched a major offensive against the powerful sand mafia, targeting close associates of a former cabinet minister from the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led government. The probe revolves around an alleged illegal sand mining and royalty theft racket worth a staggering ₹1,000 crore, with deep-rooted connections extending into neighbouring Madhya Pradesh.
Raids Unearth Paper Trail of a Cross-Border Racket
On January 9, ED teams conducted simultaneous searches at 16 locations in Nagpur district, including premises in Saoner, Khapa, and Patansawangi. While the agency remained officially tight-lipped, top sources indicated that raids were actually conducted at around 56 places across Maharashtra. The operation, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), targeted businessmen, political aides, and entities linked to fake electronic transport permits (eTPs) issued from Madhya Pradesh.
The raids uncovered a trove of evidence. ED officials meticulously photocopied bank records, asset details, liability statements, transaction histories, and data from laptops, ledgers, and files on-site. This evidence points directly to the involvement of the ex-minister's acolytes in controlling sand trade operations. Intriguingly, some of the raided suspects had recently won sand ghat auctions, raising serious suspicions of rigged bidding procedures.
The Long Arm of the Law: From Police FIR to ED's ECIR
The current ED action stems from a police FIR lodged in Nagpur in 2022 against 78 accused. Based on this, the ED registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) in 2024. The agency is focusing on individuals who allegedly benefited from various irregularities in sand ghat mining between 2019 and 2022.
This is not the first time the lid has been blown off this scam. In February 2022, Nagpur police brass ordered the reopening of 76 dormant cases against the sand mafia, where materials worth over ₹4 crore were seized. These cases exposed a sophisticated cross-border racket using fake eTPs from Madhya Pradesh, leading to arrests from Bhopal.
A year-long crime branch investigation revealed that 872 dubious eTPs from Narsinghpur, MP, facilitated the theft of 1,160 brass of sand valued at ₹60 lakh. Initially, 31 racketeers were charged, with 30 arrested The raids have ignited a heated political debate in the state. Sources indicate that the former minister, who was under police scanner in 2022, is now the prime target of the probe. Another local leader with stakes in sand mining also has a close aide embedded in the network. The latest actions are seen as a fallout of the rivalry between two key politician-sand mafia nexuses in the eastern Vidarbha region. By November 2022, police had tightened the noose around Narendra Pimple, who is politically connected to a high-profile ex-minister, charging him with extortion. Despite securing anticipatory bail, fresh charges emerged. The Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous Activities Act (MPDA) was also invoked against another kingpin, Guddu Khorgade. These police findings underscored the mafia's deep entrenchment, with bribes allegedly funneled to politicians and officials. The operations have sparked wider debates on the dominance of sand ghats, with environmentalists decrying severe riverbed depletion and massive revenue losses to the state exchequer. Political circles are abuzz with theories of vendetta, as the name of the former minister—long whispered in mafia circles—has now surfaced prominently in the national probe.Political Nexus and the Fallout
