Hemant Soren lodges FIR against ED sleuths in Ranchi over agency's searches at Delhi house

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has lodged an FIR against senior Enforcement Directorate personnel at the SC/ST police station here over searches conducted by the agency at his Delhi residence, officials said on Wednesday. Soren alleged that the ED conducted the search operation at his residence in the national capital to "harass and malign him and his entire community", the officials said, quoting the FIR.

"An FIR has been lodged against some senior ED officials... we got the application from the chief minister," Ranchi Senior Superintendent of Police Chandan Kumar Sinha told PTI.

"My family members and I have suffered and experienced immense mental, psychological and emotional harm because of the acts committed...," Soren said in the FIR, according to the officials.


An ED team searched Soren's Delhi residence on Monday, and camped there for almost 13 hours in order to question him in an alleged money laundering case linked to a land deal in Jharkhand.

The agency claimed to have seized Rs 36 lakh, an SUV and some "incriminating" documents during the search.

The chief minister claimed that he was not the owner of the seized car, and the cash recovered did not belong to him as well, they said.

Soren is presently being questioned by ED sleuths at his Ranchi residence in the same case.

The FIR has been lodged under sections of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act that include instituting false, malicious or vexatious suit or criminal or other legal proceedings against a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe besides intentionally insulting or intimidating "with intent to humiliate a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe in any place within public view".

The sections also include abuse of any member of SC/ST by caste name in any place within public view or by words either written or spoken promoting feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will against them by "whoever, not being a member of a SC or a ST".

Reacting to the FIR, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took a jibe at the CM saying it should be verified first whether it is authentic and written by Soren as in place of CM's constituency Barhait which falls in Sahibganj district, it mentions Sahibganj constituency.

"It seems that Hemant Soren has lost his wisdom...There is no constituency named Sahibganj as mentioned by the CM in the FIR," BJP state president and former Jharkhand Chief Minister Babulal Marandi said.