NEW DELHI: A day after Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren marked himself absent at the Enforcement Directorate office at Ranchi, the agency on Friday launched a two-state raid against one of his close associates, Amit Aggarwal, in at least 12 locations across Jharkhand and West Bengal in connection with army-land grabbing cases.
As per sources, Agrawal was earlier arrested by the Enforcement Directorate, and the raids were planned after his revelation in the case.
It is learnt that several acres of Army land in Jharkhand were illegally occupied in connivance with 'land mafias' and politicians.
The ED sleuths, assisted by armed paramilitary forces, raided several locations as part of a money laundering probe into the alleged use of forged documents for the sale of land belonging to the defence forces.
About eight locations are being searched in Ranchi and adjoining areas while four places associated with arrested businessman Amit Agarwal are being searched. The ED teams are also searching the premises of some real estate dealers, business associates and entities linked to Agarwal.
This is not the first time that premises associated with Agarwal, reportedly a close aide of Soren, are being raided. He was searched earlier in connection with the mining scam as well, the investigations into which are still on.
ED officials arrested Amit Agrawal in the connection with a seizure of Rs 50 lakh from an advocate Rajiv Kumar in Kolkata on July 31.
In fact, the agency had summoned Soren for questioning on Thursday, November 3, in connection with the ongoing investigation of a money-laundering case associated with the mining scam.
Soren however stayed away from the ED office and instead lashed out at the Centre while addressing a rally at Ranchi. “If I am guilty, why are you questioning me? Just come and arrest me if you can”.
Soren has linked it to his tribal identity, alleged the ED action of summoning him was aimed at harassing him and said, “The objective behind the attempt to harass me is to block the rights of tribals, backwards and minorities.”
(With inputs from PTI)