RANCHI: Hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking a probe into the property, allegedly amassed by Chief Minister Hemant Soren and his brother Basant Soren beyond their known sources of income, the Jharkhand High Court on Friday issued notices to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Registrar of Companies directing them to file a detailed report after investigating into the shell companies mentioned by the petitioner in his application within two weeks.
According to the PIL filed by an RTI activist Shiv Shankar Sharma, CM Soren and his brother Basant Soren invested black money through businessmen Ravi Kejriwal, Ramesh Kejriwal, Amit Agrawal and several others in 28 small companies to get them converted into white money. Sharma in his PIL also demanded a probe by the CBI and ED into the shell companies which are being run in other states
including Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal.
Earlier during a hearing on April 8, the court had directed the petitioner to produce all documents related to the case by filing a supplementary affidavit. “After looking at all the documents submitted by us in the supplementary affidavit, the Court of Chief Justice Dr Ravi Ranjan and Justice SN Prasad, directed Registrar of Companies to investigate into all 400-450 companies related to Hemant Soren, his brother Basant Soren, Amit Agrawal, Ravi Kejriwal, Ramesh Kejriwal Abhishek Prasad and several other people associated with Soren family,” said petitioner’s Advocate Rajeev Kumar.
The Court also directed ED to submit a detailed report after verifying the credentials of these companies, he added. According to advocate Rajeev Kumar, in the supplementary affidavit filed by them earlier, they had attached all the documents which had been sent to the CBI, which, after investigations, agreed to the petitioner’s claim that prima facie a case stands against CM Hemant Soren and others.
The petitioner in his petition claimed that close relatives of Amit Agarwal and Ravi Kejriwal have been running more than 300 shell companies, where hotels, goods, and other assets are purchased by investing the black money earned from Jharkhand. Sharma has also submitted a list of 28 such companies, which are
shell companies in which, money has been invested.
Meanwhile, Advocate General Rajiv Ranjan called a press conference, terming the reports related to the probe on shell companies misguiding as the Jharkhand High Court has already dismissed a similar PIL in 2013. ED is already a party in the PIL and it has been asked only to submit a report in the matter, he said.
The AG said that when the PIL was heard last time on April 8, the court was not satisfied with the documents filed by the case, and hence, the petitioner took two weeks time to file a supplementary affidavit.
“The PIL filed on the basis of same documents was dismissed in the year 2013 itself and a fine of 50, 000 was imposed on petitioner Dewan Indraneel Sinha, which was not disclosed by the petitioner in the court” said AG Rajiv Kumar.
"When the matter was raised by him, the court observed orally that if the points raised by him were proved to be true, then the court will take strict action against the petitioner", he added. After his submission, the court passed an order to attach the old records in the case