Soren alleges conspiracy as he joins ED probe in mining case
RANCHI/NEW DELHI: Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren on Thursday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with its money laundering probe in an alleged illegal mining case.
Before leaving for the ED office, Soren told reporters at his residence that the allegations against him were baseless and part of a larger conspiracy to topple his government.
He reached the ED’S zonal office in Ranchi around 11:45am and left around 9:40pm, almost 10 hours later. The agency had first issued summons to Soren to appear on November 3 but the CM had not showed up citing prior commitments in the state.
Workers of his party, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), flocked to the city on Thursday and held protests at several places where they raised slogans against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and central agencies.
The case pertains to alleged illegal mining and transportation on a large scale in Jharkhand. Soren’s political aide Pankaj Mishra was arrested in connection with the case in July. The federal agency has also arrested Mishra’s aides, Bachhu Yadav and Prem Prakash, in the case. ED has found in its probe that Mishra was using his close association with Soren to actively indulge in illegal mining and diverting crores of rupees from mining activities in the state. The federal agency had also recovered Soren’s bank documents during raids at Mishra’s premises in Sahebganj on July 8.
An officer privy to the investigation said: “We called the CM to ask him about how Pankaj Mishra was able to carry out large scale mining and transportation activities in Sahebganj and other areas of the state, about two Jharkhand police AK-47 rifles which were recovered from another accused Prem Prakash’s home and alleged illegal dealings of other suspects in the case who claimed to have political connections in the ruling state government.”
The agency has claimed that large-scale illegal mining activities were taking place in Jharkhand’s Sahebganj district along with the transportation of such stolen minerals through roads, railways and inland vessels. The money generated through this illegal activity was moved and controlled by accused persons through “political patronage”, the agency had said.
In its charge sheet against Mishra, filed in September, ED said it recovered “a sealed envelope containing a passbook and two cheque books containing two signed cheques, all pertaining to Bank of India account of Hemant Soren”.
Other items ED recovered during the raids and which are mentioned in the charge sheet, include “one yellow colour file marked as April 2019 to June 2022 having all bank details of Hemant Soren” and his family members. Besides, several tender documents were also recovered during the raids.
Before he left for the ED office, Soren said more raids would be conducted against his cabinet colleagues and MLAS as part of the bid to topple his government.
In its first prosecution complaint (charge sheet) filed before a special PMLA court in Ranchi in September in connection with the ongoing probe, ED has said it has “identified” proceeds of crime worth over ₹1,000 crore till now relating to illegal mining in Sahibganj district and adjoining areas of Jharkhand.