The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday raided the premises of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren's press advisor, officials of Sahibganj district and a former MLA as part of a money laundering probe into alleged illegal mining in the state.
The raids come as Soren wrote to the federal agency on Tuesday, calling its summons illegal. The chief minister added that he has already given the details of his properties. He has so far skipped six summons and this was the seventh, which the agency said was his last opportunity to record the statement.
"Soren has written to the ED in response to the summons issued to him, stating that the summons are 'illegal.' He has also accused ED of making the media trial of the whole matter. In his reply, he also said that he had already given the details of the properties. He has also accused ED of trying to destabilise the government," sources told ANI.
The raids also come amid the JMM-led coalition's crucial meeting of its legislators at Ranchi on Wednesday to discuss the current political scenario.
Over a dozen locations in the state, including in the state capital Ranchi and a premise in Rajasthan, are being raided by ED. These include the premises of press advisor Abhishek Prasad alias Pintu, collector and SP of Sahibganj district and ex-MLA Pappu Yadav. Some jail department officials and a police constable are being searched by the agency officials, the sources said.
The agency, since 2022, has been probing a trail of Rs 100 crore of "proceeds of crime" generated from illegal mining operations in the state. In 2022 July, the ED raised Soren's political aide Pankaj Mishra and his alleged associates.
The probe focuses on alleged irregularities in the operation of toll plaza tenders and instances of illegal mining in the state. The evidence collected during the investigation, including the statements of various persons, digital evidence and documents, revealed that the funds seized from the accused were derived from illegal mining being rampantly done in the Sahibganj area, including the forest area, the ED had said.
'BJP's imagination'
Soren had also dismissed speculations that his wife Kalpana Soren would contest from the Gandey assembly constituency in the state and termed it as a "complete imagination" of the BJP.
"Possibility of my wife contesting in the near future is a complete imagination of the BJP... The speculation about handing over reins to her is a fabric woven by the BJP to build a false narrative," the chief minister told PTI.
The speculations were triggered by the Enforcement Directorate's recent summons to the chief minister and the sudden resignation by the ruling JMM's Gandey MLA Sarfaraz Ahmad on Monday.
