ED arrests Hemant Soren; Champai Soren stakes claim to form govt

The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday arrested Hemant Soren after questioning him for nearly eight hours. He resigned as Jharkhand chief minister after it became evident that he would be arrested. After recording his statement, Soren was taken by ED to its Ranchi office to complete the formalities of arrest.

The agency will produce him before a court on Thursday and seek his custodial interrogation. According to people in the know, Soren was confronted with documentary evidence ED claims to have gathered linking him to alleged illegal mining, land and other scams. Soren was unable to answer the questions put to him, after which he was arrested, claimed agency sources.

Soren was also confronted with statements of co-accused who had recorded their statement under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, admissible in a court of law, indicating Soren’s alleged involvement in the land scandal. One of the alleged scams is related to illegal transfer for ownership of parcels of land in Ranchi while the other pertains to illegal stone mining in Sahibganj district.

Soren was summoned by the agency after “fresh” evidence had come to light following questioning of Pankaj Mishra, an alleged political aide of the former CM. In July last year, the agency raided Mishra’s premises and of others allegedly related to him and then arrested him. After the raids, ED had frozen deposits of Rs 11.88 crore allegedly lying in 37 bank accounts belonging to Mishra and Dahoo Yadav, a person allegedly linked to him. Besides this, Rs 5.34 crore “unaccounted” cash was also seized under the PMLA Act by ED, which claimed that these amounts were linked to “illegal mining” in Jharkhand.

In August last year, the agency had carried out another round of raids in Jharkhand. A day after ED searched the Delhi residence of Soren and claimed to have seized `36 lakh in cash and a Haryanaregistered BMW SUV, Soren denied any association with the cash and the
SUV, claimed people in the know. ED had conducted searches at the residence of the JMM leader in south Delhi on Monday, staying there for nearly 13 hours as part of an inquiry into amoney laundering probe linked to an alleged land deal in Jharkhand.



The probe pertains to “huge amounts of proceeds of crime generated by manipulation of official records”, alleges ED. Soren had earlier denied all allegations.