RANCHI: Creating more trouble for former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday registered another case against him of disobeying summons issued by the investigating agency. Notably, ED had served 10 summons to Soren, out of which he turned up only twice before the agency for questioning.
ED has filed complaint number 3952/2024 at the Chief Judicial Magistrate's court, which is to be heard next on February 27 after a preliminary hearing on Tuesday.
ED in its complaint has stated that it had issued 10 summons to Hemant Soren in the money laundering case linked to the land scam, out of which he appeared before the ED only twice. According to the agency, Soren had disregarded the ED summons.
The complaint has been filed under Section 63 of PMLA and Section 174 of IPC against Soren for disobeying the summons.
Meanwhile, ED sources also informed that the 8.5 acres of land at Bargain in Ranchi, for which Hemant Soren was arrested, will be seized by the investigation agency.
Interestingly, WhatsApp chats which surfaced during the scrutiny of the two mobile phones of Hemant Soren’s aide Binod Kumar Singh, revealed that the 8.5 acres of land was being illegally acquired by Soren to construct a banquet hall.
In a 13 page remand note submitted before the Special PMLA Court in Ranchi, ED said that a plan/map of proposed banquet was shared by Binod Singh to Hemant Soren on April 06, 2021 on his mobile phone.
Notably, the ED had issued the first summon to Hemant Soren in August 2023 in the land scam-related case and had asked to appear before it on August 14. After this, the agency sent 10 summons to him but he appeared only twice before the agency on January 20 and January 31, 2024.
After skipping ED summons for the eighth time in land scam case, Hemant Soren for the first time agreed to join the probe, following which, he was questioned by ED at his residence in Ranchi on January 20 for more than 7 hours.
Later on January 27, ED had sent a letter to CM Hemant Soren once again, asking him to decide time and place for questioning either on January 29 or 31. ED through its letter had asked Soren to decide any time and place from January 29 -31; otherwise they themselves would come to his official residence for questioning.
Soren after the tenth summon, once again, had agreed for questioning for the second time on January 31.
ED finally arrested Soren on January 31, 2024, after he duped ED officials and disappeared from his Delhi residence on January 29. Soren remained traceless for about 40 hours after he disappeared from Delhi and suddenly surfaced in Ranchi on the day of his arrest.
After his arrest, Hemant Soren was interrogated for 13 days by ED, after which he was sent to judicial custody till February 22.
ED is carrying out an investigation in Ranchi on the basis of the documents recovered from Bhanu Pratap's house, one of the key accused in the land scam case. According to ED, several important documents related to land were found during the raid from the house of Sub-Inspector Bhanu Pratap Prasad of Badagain zone.
