The Central probe agency—Enforcement Directorate (ED) has decided to attach the 8.46 acres of land at Bargain area—the land which is alleged to be illegally owned by former Chief Minister Hemant Soren. The ED in its investigation has found that the land was illegally occupied by former Chief Minister Hemant Soren, where a banquet hall was to be constructed with the help of architect Vinod Singh.
However, during the ED investigation, it was revealed that the registration of the land had been changed in the name of Rajkumar Pahan. This is not the first time that ED will seize any land. Earlier, ED had seized 4.55 acres of land used by the army.
Former CM Hemant Soren is lodged in jail. On January 31, after about 7 hours of interrogation, ED took him into custody. After which, on February 2, he was produced in the PMLA court and taken on remand for 5 days. After the remand period was over, he appeared once again on 7 February and was sent on remand for 5 days and then for 3 days. During the remand period, Hemant Soren and the then Deputy Revenue Officer Bhanu Pratap Prasad were also interrogated face to face by the ED. At the same time, ED has also asked questions and answers from architect Vinod Singh. Now it is being said that Vinod Singh has become a witness for ED. Meanwhile, when the former CM was presented in the court on February 15 after the remand period was over, the court sent him to jail. After this, Bhanu Pratap Prasad was also arrested by ED in this case.
Hemant Soren illegally acquired and possessed land parcels of approximately 8.5 acres, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had told the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Court in Ranchi.
The probe agency's investigation also revealed that several chats and other information pertaining to cash transactions obtained from Bhanu Pratap Prasad's mobile phone revealed illegal benefits that Hemant Soren received in acquiring these land parcels.
Notably, the land fraud case stems from June 2023 raids against Bhanu Pratap Prasad, a sub-inspector in the Jharkhand Revenue Department, who allegedly worked along with the land mafia. The Enforcement Directorate claimed that chats from Prasad's phone "exposed" Hemant Soren's active role in the land scam that the agency is investigating. The probe also revealed that Bhanu Prasad was actively involved in hatching conspiracies to acquire properties in an illegal manner with Hemant Soren and other people.
First of all, on April 13, 2023, ED had raided the house of Bhanu Pratap Prasad, the then Deputy Revenue Inspector of Badhgai zone. The agency had recovered many documents from here. Information about many lands was also received from mobile phones. Based on this case, ED had started an investigation. On April 14, ED arrested 7 people for the first time in this case. Apart from Pradeep Bagchi, Afsar Ali, Saddam Hussain, 4 more people were arrested. About 23 days later, former Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi, suspended IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan was arrested. Based on Chhavi's interrogation, Nucleus Mall owner Vishnu Aggarwal was arrested on July 31.