The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday issued its seventh summons to Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren for questioning in connection with an alleged land scam case. With this notice, the ED has given Mr. Soren the last chance to record his statement in the land scam case.
The ED’s letter to Mr. Soren, which it stated should be treated as a summons, said that it was very important to record his statement in the land scam case, and therefore, if he wished, he could decide the place and time to record his statement within two days.
The Opposition BJP said that Mr. Soren was “running away like a fugitive”.
The ED has issued the notice for questioning in a land scam case in the Badgai area of Ranchi related to the purchase and sale of tribal land with forged documents. The ED has issued six summons to Mr. Soren on the matter so far — on August 14, August 24, September 9, September 23, October 4, and December 12 — Mr. Soren has responded to all summons but he has not appeared even once before the Central agency to record his statement. He challenged the summons at the Supreme Court and the Jharkhand High Court but was unable to secure any relief.
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha supremo had approached the Supreme Court after receiving the first summons, which he challenged as “illegal”, but the apex court directed him to approach the Jharkhand High Court. Meanwhile, the ED issued another summons and called him on September 9. The CM filed a petition in the Jharkhand High Court on October 13, but the HC also did not rule in his favour.
Reacting to the ED’s summons, the JMM’s central spokesperson Manoj Pandey said that it was “not right to be stubborn and insist on something unnecessarily” in a reference to the ED’s summons. He also said that such an act did not suit a constitutional institution. He further said that there was “nothing in the case” in which the ED had sent six summons to Mr. Soren. Mr. Pandey alleged that the ED was repeatedly trying to harass the Jharkhand CM and Mr. Soren’s legal team would deal with the issue.
