RANCHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed an 18-page petition on Wednesday requesting a seven-day extension of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren's remand. After hearing the ED counsel, the court allowed the petition and extended his remand for five more days.
In the petition, the agency submitted WhatsApp chats between Soren and his friend and associate Binod Kumar Singh, alleging the exchanges to be highly incriminating and containing details of several properties.
The ED, in its petition obtained by TNIE, claimed that Hemant Soren displays acute non-cooperation and reluctance in disclosing information regarding properties acquired by himself and individuals associated with him.
The probing agency says it has recovered around 1739 materials of conversations between Binod Singh, Hemant Soren, and others from his two mobile phones. The conversation also mentions one Lalaji, who is said to be a very big party from Kolkata.
According to ED, the WhatsApp messages not only include the exchange of confidential information regarding several properties but also other incriminating information relating to transfer posting, sharing of government records, etc., out of which a huge amount of money appears to have been generated and transacted.
“In addition to this, Binod Singh has Whatsapp chats with several other people about the transfer of officials, the possession and sharing of several admit cards of students appearing for competitive exams held by the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission, etc.,” the probing agency stated in its petition and added that these conversations contained around 539 pages of several confidential documents.
Though several top IAS and other officials have been mentioned in the WhatsApp messages recovered by ED, the real identity of ‘Lalaji’ is still a mystery as the agency suspects whether ‘Lalaji’ is meant for the notorious coal mafia of West Bengal.
“Bhai if possible Kolkata wala ‘Lala ji’ se Sunday ko ek bar mil lo......rest up to you. Kab se karna hai ya nahi karna hai,ek bar samajh leta. Bada party hai. Plz let me know,” (Brother, If possible meet the Lalaji from Kolkata, the rest is up to you. Please try to get an idea, of when to start... or not to be done. He is a big party.)
According to the agency, Binod had messaged Soren on June 12, 2020. Sending a printed note on his WhatsApp, Binod has also requested the Jharkhand CM for the choice of posting two jail superintendents, Narendra Kumar Singh and Jitendra Kumar. An amount of Rs 75 lakhs is written underneath.
In another conversation dated June 2020, Binod Singh requested his friend and CM Soren to appoint an IAS officer as DC of any district, clearly mentioning that it would be a deal.
“Kahi ka DC bana dena... no relation pure commercial,” Binod writes.
He again recommends posting IAS officer Shahi Ranjan as DC of either Hazaribagh or Bokaro, making it clear that whatever recommendation for transfer and posting he has made, he has not taken any money. And once the work is done, he (Binod) will charge money from them as per the direction given by Soren.
“Bhai abhi tak jitna bhi recommendatio kiya hai kisi se ek rupaya bhi nahi liya hai.. kam hone ke bad for sure jaisa aadesh hoga apka. But request hai plz kuch case consider kar lena. I wish hum bhi chota sa system ke part hote,” the conversation reads.
The list includes several bureaucrats—Ravi Raj Sharma, Md Haider Ali and others—who wanted plum postings for them through Binod Singh. An amount of Rs 2 crore per month has also been mentioned in one such conversation between Binod and Soren.
