The CBI has summoned Samajwadi Party chief and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav as a witness for questioning in a five-year-old illegal mining case.

Sources on Wednesday said Akhilesh had been asked to appear before the agency on February 29 in connection with the case registered in 2019.

The CBI’s summons comes days after the Samajwadi Party and the Congress announced a tie-up for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh.

The case pertains to the issuance of mining leases in alleged violation of the e-tendering process and it was alleged that public servants, in criminal conspiracy with other accused persons, allowed illegal mining of minor minerals in Hamirpur district, Uttar Pradesh, during the period 2012-2016.

Allahabad High Court had ordered a CBI probe.

In January 2019, the CBI had registered a criminal case against 11 persons, including four Samajwadi Party politicians, and said it was probing the role of former chief minister Akhilesh and some bureaucrats. The agency had alleged that public servants allowed illegal mining between 2012 and 2016, when Akhilesh was chief minister, and illegally renewed licences despite a ban by the National Green Tribunal on mining.

It was alleged that the officers allowed the theft of minerals and extorted money from leaseholders.

“Akhilesh had held the mining ministry from 2012 to 2014, the first two years of his chief ministership,” said aCBI official.

The CBI had alleged that the accused persons had illegally granted fresh leases for the mining of sand, renewed existing leases and permitted obstructed periods to the existing leaseholders and thereby caused wrongful loss to the government exchequer and undue gain to themselves.