Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren will be taken to Hotwar Central Jail in Ranchi for a day as the PMLA Court has reserved its order on Enforcement Directorate (ED)‘s remand request. The Court will pronounce its order and Mr. Soren will be brought to the Court from jail on February 2.
Soon after he resigned as Chief Minister, Mr. Soren was arrested by the ED on Jan. 31. The agency had questioned him for over seven hours during the day.
The ED has claimed that a dozen land parcels in Ranchi, measuring about 8.5 acres in total, are in "illegal possession, occupation and use" of Mr. Soren and are proceeds of crime under the anti-money laundering law. The criminal case filed by the ED against the 48-year-Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader emerges from a June 2023 ECIR following raids conducted against State government employee and Revenue Department Sub-Inspector Bhanu Pratap Prasad at various locations in the State.
The agency, as per official records, recovered 11 trunks holding voluminous property documents from Mr. Prasad's premises along with 17 original registers. Mr. Prasad was a custodian of many original registers of land records and their ownership details of the State, the ED claimed.
It alleged that Mr. Prasad was "involved in the corrupt practices which included falsification of original records and had been a party with several other persons in their activities linked to the acquisition of landed properties in a fraudulent manner". The ED shared this information with the Jharkhand government which registered a police FIR against Mr. Prasad at the Sadar police station in Ranchi on June 1, 2023. The central agency took cognisance of this FIR to file its ECIR on June 26, 2023.
Mr. Prasad, the ED claimed, was "actively involved in hatching conspiracies with other persons to acquire and conceal various properties in an illegal manner including the properties which are illegally acquired and possessed by Shri Hemant Soren." These details were also recovered from the mobile phone of Mr. Prasad, it said.
According to official documents, Mr. Soren was arrested by the ED at 10 pm on Wednesday from the Governor House. During his personal search, the former CM "refused to remove" a religious locket and ring he was wearing.
The agency, explaining the grounds of arrest, said it recorded statements of several persons under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and this exercise "established" that 12 landed properties, situated next to each other, and measuring 8.5 acres in total, were under "illegal acquisition, possession and use of Soren and this has been kept concealed by him (Soren)".
It said a survey was conducted on these land plots that "established that the land is in illegal possession, occupation and use of Soren." Mr. Soren, on his part, contended that the said land fell under the Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act and it "cannot be transferred" and the special regulation officer in Ranchi had restored the possession of the land back to its original owner on January 29. He also asserted that documents recovered from someone's phone cannot be taken as "gospel truth" to implicate and arrest him.
The JMM leader also filed a plea before the Supreme Court in Delhi on Feb. 1 challenging his arrest from the "precinct of Governor House at 10 pm." The ED said it searched the residential premises of Soren in Delhi and seized ₹36,34,500 cash from the cupboard of a room "under the use and occupation of Soren".
The agency claimed to also have seized some documents linked to this investigation from the house. It said the 8.5-acre asset was a "proceeds of crime" which was in "unauthorised and illegal possession and use" of Mr. Soren.
Mr. Soren, it said, "knowingly was a party along with Bhanu Pratap Prasad and others in the activities connected with concealment of original records for projecting the property acquired by him in an illegal manner as an untainted property." It added Mr. Soren was "still enjoying" the said proceeds of crime and hence was "guilty of the offence of money laundering as per section 3 of PMLA". -
Champai Soren to meet Governor
Meanwhile, Jharkhand Governor CP Radhakrishnan invited the JMM-led alliance leaders for a meeting at 5:30 pm on Feb. 1, amid concerns among the ruling coalition over the delay in the appointment of JMM legislative party leader Champai Soren as the State’s next Chief Minister.
Mr. Champai Soren, in a letter to the Governor, said Mr. Hemant Soren had tendered his resignation as the Chief Minister on Jan. 30 night, which was accepted by the Raj Bhavan at 8:45 pm. “There is no Government in existence in the State for the last 18 hours. There is a situation of confusion...You are the constitutional head...We all the MLAs and the people expect that you will pave the way for the formation of a popular government,” the letter to the Governor said.
Jharkhand Transport Minister Mr. Champai Soren was named as the leader of JMM’s legislative party on Jan. 31, after which he met the Governor and staked a claim to form the new government with the support of 47 legislators.
Claiming that the Governor told them that he would get back to them after reviewing all the papers, the alliance leaders expressed concerns over the delay. Sources in the ruling coalition also said steps were being taken to shift its MLAs to Hyderabad to prevent any poaching attempt by the BJP. Two chartered planes — one 12-seater and another of 37 seats — have been booked for shifting our legislators to Hyderabad, sources said.
(with inputs from PTI)
