RANCHI: Responding to the summon issued against him in land scam case, Chief Minister Hemant Soren has asked Enforcement Directorate (ED) to withdraw it or he will take action against the central agency.
Notably, Soren was issued a notice by ED asking him to appear before it on August 14 for questioning in a land scam case but he skipped it.
Staff from the Chief Minister’s Office reached the ED office and handed over a sealed envelope, sent by Soren, to the ED officials. ED sources informed that Soren in his letter said that he has provided all necessary documents and information to the Lokpal and CBI; if ED needs any information, it can get them from these agencies.
Soren also has made allegations that ED summoned him on August 14 in a land scam case, on the instructions of its political masters, they informed. Notably, CM Hemant Soren was summoned be ED for the second time for questioning, this time in a land scam case, and was asked to appear for questioning at its zonal office in Ranchi on August 14.
Earlier, Soren was grilled by ED for about 10 hours on November 18, 2022, in an illegal mining case. Incidentally, Soren was summoned after arresting of Bishnu Kumar Agrawal on August 1, a well-known businessman who owns shopping malls and other business establishments and was termed by ED as being “habitually” involved in acquiring land in a fraudulent and illegal manner in connivance with the government officials, including former Ranchi deputy commissioner Chhavi Ranjan.
Notably, Agrawal is the 13th person, including IAS and former Ranchi DC Chhavi Ranjan, to have been arrested by ED as part of its money laundering probe related to allegedly fraudulent sale-purchase of land in the state capital.
Earlier, ED carried out 41 searches and 5 surveys in this matter during which, several pieces of incriminating evidence like forged seals of the land revenue department, forged land deeds, records of the distribution of proceeds of crime among them, photographs doing forgery, evidence of giving bribe to Government officials etc, were seized. Investigation revealed that a racket of land mafia is active in Jharkhand which used to forge the legacy records in Kolkata and Ranchi.
Meanwhile, the ED has provisionally attached two land parcels worth Rs. 74.39 Crore in an Army land scam case in Ranchi. According to officials, a money laundering investigation was initiated on the basis of an FIR registered at Bariatu Police Station in Ranchi under various sections of IPC against Pradip Bagchi based on a complaint of Ranchi Municipal Corporation.