RANCHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has sent a letter to Chief Minister Hemant Soren once again asking him to decide time and place soon for questioning.
After the ninth summon, Soren had written a letter expressing his inability to give any date, citing pre-engagements before March 31.
According to sources, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has sent a letter to Soren, requesting him to choose a time and location between January 29 and 31. If he does not make a decision, they will visit him.
Notably, after being summoned for the eighth time in a land scam case, CM Soren 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. Now, ED wants to question him once again.
ED is investigating the Ranchi land scam case based on 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 in the raid from the house of Sub-Inspector Bhanu Pratap Prasad of Badagain zone.
Certain documents are allegedly linked with the CM related to the alleged grab of a costly parcel of tribal land in Ranchi.
Soren skipped the first summons on August 14, and sent a letter to ED asking it to withdraw the summons or he will be forced to take legal action against the agency.
But, the ED again issued a summon against Soren asking him to appear before it on August 24. Soren skipped it the second time and sent a letter to ED saying that he has filed a writ petition in Supreme Court challenging the summons issued to him, but he was summoned again by ED for the third time.
Soren was waiting for the hearing of his petition in the Supreme Court on September 17, but before that he was issued a fresh summons by ED asking to appear before it on September 23. In spite of going to ED office, Soren approached Jharkhand High Court against the summons issued against him and sought relief.
But, a few days later, ED issued fresh summons, for the fifth time, asking Soren to appear before the central investigation agency on October 4, which he skipped again.
Later he was called for the sixth time on December 12 for questioning, but he skipped it again asking the agency to let him know in what capacity he was summoned. He had also said that he had already submitted details of his properties to the ED.
BY Mukesh Ranjan
