Ranchi
Having finally got his consent to be probed after eight summons, an 8-member team of Enforcement Directorate on Saturday quizzed Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren at his official residence in Ranchi in relation with a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam. The ED team which entered the CM residence at around 1 pm left the place around 9 pm.
Some of Soren’s close aides and officials, including an IAS officer, have already been arrested in the recent past in the case. Soren had earlier faced nine hours of ED’s questioning in an illegal mining case in November, 2022.
Addressing his supporters after ED’s questioning, Hemant said: “They are hatching conspiracies. We are doing the state’s development by shredding their conspiracies to pieces. It is time to put a final nail in their coffin. Don’t worry, I will be grateful to you. Hemant Soren will always stand with the workers.”
The situation in the State capital remained tense as JMM workers armed with traditional bows and arrows protested near the CM residence and cautioned the investigating agency against any “misadventure”. Many tribal organisations had also staged protests on Friday against the Centre and the ED.
Given the impending Lok Sabha polls and the Assembly elections later this year, Soren has continuously sought to play the tribal card by asserting that the BJP-led Centre was harassing him owing to his Adivasi status and him being a tribal Chief Minister.
Not without reason: Both the BJP and the JMM rode on the tribal vote to trump each other in the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls respectively.
Of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand, five seats (Chaibasa, Khunti, Lohardaga, Dumka and Rajmahal) are reserved for the Scheduled Tribes. The BJP had won three seats (Lohardaga, Khunti and Dumka) in 2019. In fact, JMM chief Shibu Soren lost his traditional Dumka Lok Sabha seat. The JMM bagged Rajmahal and the Congress Chaibasa. The BJP went on to win 8 General seats as well.
However, the BJP’s fortunes reversed for the worse in the Assembly elections later that year. Jharkhand has 28 Vidhan Sabha seats reserved for the Scheduled Tribes. Of this, the BJP could win only 2 seats while the JMM and the Congress grabbed the remaining 26 seats to oust the incumbent Raghubar Das government.
Having refused seven summons by the ED earlier, Soren finally agreed to be quizzed by the Central agency after the eight summons and asked it to come to official residence on Kanke Road.
But before proceeding, the ED too had asked the State government and the Union Home Ministry to ensure adequate security. Against the backdrop of the attack on ED officials in West Bengal, a heavy posse of CRPF personnel was deployed near the CM house. However, no major untoward incident was reported from any quarter. In the evening, the Ranchi district administration clamped prohibitory orders within a radius of 500 meters around the Chief Minister’s residence.
Escorted by CISF jawans who were also equipped with body cameras to keep a tab on happenings, the ED sleuths reached the CM’s residence at about 1 pm. The administration too had taken adequate precautionary measures including checking the identity cards of the individual investigators before letting them in.
Before this, several MLAs supporting the Soren government had arrived to express solidarity. In fact, Congress MLA from Jamtara Irfan Ansari broke into tears while Hemant was about to proceed for interrogation.
“We strongly condemn such a vindictive approach. We are not opposed to free and fair investigations. Our Chief Minister is always ready to extend due cooperation. The masses will be giving them befitting reply during the coming elections,” rued JMM MLA from Latehar Baidyanath Ram.
But State’s former home secretary and BJP spokesman J.B. Tubid countered saying, “The CM’s interrogations should not be linked to impact on poll outcomes. The investigating agency people are doing their jobs. As a law abiding citizen the CM should have appeared before the ED at the very first summon.”
Jharkhand Advocate General Rajiv Ranjan, DGP Ajay Kumar Singh, Deputy Commissioner, Ranchi, Rahul Kumar Sinha and SSP Chandan Kumar Sinha were also at Soren’s residence at the time of his questioning.
WHAT IS THE CASE?
The money laundering case against the Jharkhand Chief Minister is related to a “huge racket of illegal change of ownership of land by the mafia” in Jharkhand, according to the central probe agency. The ED has so far arrested 14 people in the case, including 2011-batch IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan, who served as the Director of the State’s Social Welfare Department and Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi. The case pertains to the ownership of a 7.16-acre plot of land in Bajra area of Ranchi. The land is alleged to have been acquired through the proceeds of crime involving illegal sale of Army land. Two businessmen have also been arrested in the case. All are in judicial custody.
