RANCHI: After being summoned eight times, Chief Minister Hemant Soren has asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that it can record his statement at his official residence in Ranchi on January 20 involving a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam.
Soren (48) has accused the BJP-led Centre of using Central agencies to destabilise his government. The case is linked to illegal change of ownership of land in Jharkhand. Soren is likely to be questioned about his alleged ownership of this land. So far, 14 people have been arrested in the case.
The Jharkhand CM had filed a petition before the Supreme Court and then the Jharkhand High Court, seeking protection from ED action. Both the courts had dismissed his petition.
The ED on December 29 sent him the seventh summons, asking him to decide the date, time, and place for questioning. The Central agency then gave Soren a deadline of two days.
In its eighth summons issued to Soren on Saturday, ED asked Soren the reasons for not turning up for questioning and also sought a reply within a week.
According to ED sources, Soren had been given a time-frame of January 16 to 20 to reply or the ED will have to come to him. Finally, after ignoring ED summons for five months, before completion of the deadline on January 15, Soren agreed to join the probe.
On Monday, Congress working president and senior tribal leader Bandhu Tirkey warned the Central agency of dire consequences for challenging an elected government in the state. According to Tirkey, there is outrage among the tribals against the ED in Jharkhand, which if explodes, may create problems for them.
“Tribals go on ‘jani shikar’ (all-women teams going to the jungle for hunting) every 12 years; if they come out of
their homes for hunting, ED people will be in deep trouble,” said Tirkey.
The JMM, however, called it Tirkey’s personal views but it said that there was anger among the people over attempts being made to destabilize the Soren government.