Chief Minister Hemant Soren is likely to skip the fresh summons issued to him by Central probe agency—Enforcement Directorate (ED) in which he has been asked appear before probe agency between January 27 and 31 for further questioning in connection with the agency’s money laundering probe into an alleged land scam, sources said.
Sources said that Soren has told in advance that he may not be available till March due to tight official schedules and engagements.
The CM reportedly told ED officials that he has a very busy official schedule till March dropping enough hints that he is not ready for another round of questioning.
Earlier, Soren was questioned on Saturday for nearly seven hours after he skipped seven summons. The ED has said the agency needs clarifications on issues related to its probe into the alleged scam linked to the ownership of 7.16-acre land in Ranchi.
The land was allegedly acquired through proceeds of crime involving the illegal sale of army land. Soren has maintained the case is unclear and the details of his assets have been made public.
The agency has arrested 14 people in the case, including bureaucrat Chhavi Ranjan, and businessmen Amit Agrawal and Bishnu Agrawal, who own shopping malls in Ranchi.
The ED served him the first summons on August 14 last year. Soren ignored the summons and questioned the legality and motives of the agency. Lastly, the ED in a tersely written letter cum summon gave him the last opportunity and warned him of serious consequences resulting in his arrest if he continues to disobey summons.
However, during questioning Soren denied and said that he neither grabbed any land nor the aforesaid land is under his possession. But ED said that they have sufficient evidence to nail him.
The recording of the statement did not finish that day (January 20), and hence, the chief minister has been asked to join the probe again, they said. The agency is understood to have put about 25-30 questions to Soren during the last week questioning in the money laundering case linked to alleged instances of illegal land deals. After the ED officials had left, the chief minister had said a conspiracy had been hatched against him. Soren, 48, who is also the executive president of the Jharkhand ... Mukti Morcha (JMM), had earlier skipped seven summonses of the ED, and gave his nod for questioning when the eighth summons was sent.
During a raid in another land scam case related to the Indian Army, the ED seized many official documents from the residence of a revenue official Bhanu Pratap Prasad who in an unauthorised way had kept official documents. The ED stumbled upon electronic evidence suggesting that senior revenue official Manoj Kumar had directed circle officer Bhanu Pratap Prasad to conduct a survey and verification of this land.