The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is likely to ring-fence Hemant Soren as the agency has issued the seventh summons to the Jharkhand chief minister in connection with the land grab and sand mining case last week.
The ED is now preparing for the next legal step against Soren, which may include issuance of an arrest warrant or filing a petition before the court seeking its direction in connection with the investigation, News18 has learnt.
According to legal experts and senior officers in the agency, ED may find the second option more appropriate than going on a direct ‘offensive’ against the chief minister.
“Issuing a non-bailable arrest warrant would be the last legal resort which ED, a quasi-judicial body, can do when a witness or an accused continues to ignore summons and refuses to join investigation,” said a senior officer in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). However, a senior leader close to Soren said the chief minister already wrote to the ED after the sixth summon, calling those “political malice”.
“The summons were issued to Hemant Soren as a political person, not in the capacity of the chief minister. The government has no role to play in this. However, the party is mulling more legal options. The party moved the high court and then the Supreme Court after the third summon and the petition is disposed as of now. So, the party is now thinking of more legal recourse,” said a senior leader and legal advisor of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).
The cases and allegations
Early last year, an investigation into the forgery of 100-year-old land documents, and subsequent transactions surrounding it, blew the lid off a multi-crore scam in Jharkhand allegedly involving Soren.
It was another flashpoint between the Narendra Modi government and Soren, following the arrest of IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan of the 2011 batch of the Jharkhand cadre in May for the alleged land scam that includes at least 35 land properties allegedly in possession of Soren, top sources in the ED told News18.
Besides, the ED is investigating a stone-mining scam for alleged involvement of Soren and his JMM party members. One of his MLAs has been arrested in connection with the case.
Over the past year, Soren has been summoned by the ED six times in connection with the alleged land and stone mining scams. Soren has appeared in one, while he skipped the remaining and filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court seeking a stay in the investigations. However, the SC sent the case back to the high court, and the high court dismissed the petition, saying that it cannot be adjudicated in the court, said the party’s legal adviser who did not want to be named. “No petition is pending now, but we are trying to explore other legal routes, while Soren ji has decided to fight it out politically.”
Last week, addressing a press conference, Soren said he was not ‘running like a fugitive’ and he was there in Jharkhand, attending office. He also said he would fight the allegations politically.
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