MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has unearthed a large-scale illegal sand mining racket operating in Nagpur and Bhandara districts of Vidarbha, allegedly using fabricated Electronic Transit Permits (ETPs) from Madhya Pradesh to pass off illegally excavated sand as legally sourced material. The agency has pegged the proceeds of crime at over ₹30 crore.
According to ED officials, multiple organised networks extracted sand from river ghats in and around Nagpur and Bhandara despite restrictions on mining. The syndicates allegedly procured fake ETPs purportedly issued for mining and transport operations in Madhya Pradesh, enabling them to show on paper that the sand originated from leased ghats in the neighbouring state.
Each forged ETP was allegedly purchased for ₹6,000 to ₹10,000 from a fraud network based in Madhya Pradesh. The permits carried vehicle numbers that appeared valid on government portals. However, analysis of the vehicles’ GPS data told a different story.
“The GPS data revealed that the vehicles mentioned in the ETPs never travelled to the Madhya Pradesh locations cited in the permits. Instead, during the same period, they made repeated trips from illegal sand ghats in and around Nagpur,” an ED official said.
Searches across two states
On January 9, the ED conducted searches at 16 premises in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh — including Bhopal, Hoshangabad, Betul and Nagpur. The agency said it seized unaccounted cash worth ₹38.43 lakh, froze bank deposits of ₹1.34 crore and impounded eight vehicles, including four hydraulic excavators and a BMW car.
Investigators also recovered documents, property papers and digital devices that allegedly point to large-scale illegal excavation, generation of unlawful proceeds and investment in immovable properties.
The ED claimed that one of the syndicates was allegedly operated by two men, Rahul and Bablu, from Madhya Pradesh. They are accused of preparing forged ETPs showing legal authorisation linked to leased sand ghats in MP and supplying them on demand to illegal sand mining operators in Nagpur and Bhandara.
Using these fake permits, operators allegedly transported illegally excavated sand while official records falsely reflected that the material had been sourced from authorised ghats in Madhya Pradesh.
The agency alleged that the accused caused substantial losses to the government exchequer by evading royalties and taxes, while earning huge unlawful profits.
FIRs and earlier arrests
The ED probe stems from FIRs registered in 2022 by the Sadar and Ambazari police stations in Nagpur against multiple accused, including Narendra and Amol. The police had alleged that an organised racket was extracting and selling sand illegally using forged ETPs linked to Madhya Pradesh.
Investigators had earlier claimed that even after sand ghats around Nagpur were closed for mining, operatives continued excavation in alleged collusion with transporters, generating fake royalty documents and selling sand in the local market.
In January 2022, Nagpur police arrested Rahul from Bhopal based on a tip-off. A local informant had allegedly transferred ₹9,999 via a mobile payment app to procure a transport permit for sand purportedly mined from a ghat in Narsinghpur district of Madhya Pradesh. Police suspected that illegal sand operators from Nagpur and Bhandara were in contact with the MP-based network.
Authorities said action against illegal sand mining remains a priority in the region, given its impact on riverbeds and public revenue.