Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - Live
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.
“The allegations seem to be impossible. I feel agencies should come to a concrete conclusion only after a detailed probe. I am a chief minister and the manner in which summoning is being done makes it look like we’re people who would flee the country. Only businessmen and not politicians flee the country,” said Soren on Thursday.
“Such actions create uncertainty in the state. It can be seen as a conspiracy to destabilise the government...” he added.
As he left for questioning, Soren also released the letter he wrote to ED on Thursday, rebutting the quantum of proceeds of crime being claimed by the agency in Sahibganj district.
In his letter, addressed to the ED assistant director, Soren said that all the rakes, trucks and barges available in Sahibganj could “not have possibly transported 8 crore metric tonnes” of stone, which would actually be required to be illegally mined to cause a loss of ₹1,000 crore to the state exchequer in two years.
He added that in order to “evade royalty of ₹1,000 crore in two years”, 3.3 million trucks or more than 20,000 train rakes would be needed to transport the “8 crore metric tonnes of stone”. The letter also said that to transport such a large quantity of illegally mined stone, 4,500 trucks would be required every day for two years, whereas Sahibganj district has only about 800 registered trucks.
“It appears that you have not identified the loading of even a single rake without requisite challan as you have not taken action against any railway officer. You claim that approximately 6,500 rakes loaded stone in Sahibganj district during the past two years. Even if all these 6,500 rakes loaded only illegally mined stone, which cannot be the case, they would not be sufficient to transport the total quantity of 8 crore MT of illegally mined stone which would fetch royalty of Rs 1,000 crore,” Soren’s letter to the ED said.
Reacting to the letter, BJP legislature party leader Babulal Marandi said it should have answered questions instead of threatening his party.
“I repeatedly alerted the government about the illegal mining. He (Soren) should now answer questions of the agency. If he has not committed any crime then why is he questioning and threatening our party. Only those who have something to hide resort to such tactics,” said Marandi.