ED Summons Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren | Latest News | India News

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday issued a fresh summons to Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren and asked him to record a statement in a money laundering case between January 27 and 31.
The fresh summons comes days after a team of ED questioned the Jharkhand chief minister in connection with the Ranchi land scam case. The central agency had quizzed Soren on Satruday (January 20) for about seven hours at his official residence.
ED sources had said the team conducted a comprehensive but amicable interrogation of the CM, including questions about an allegedly “illegal transaction of a plot of land measuring 8.5 acres in the Bariyatu area of the city”.
After the Saturday questioning of the chief minister, TOI had learnt from sources that the agency could decide on questioning Soren further.
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.
The investigation pertains to a “huge racket of illegal change of ownership of land by the mafia” in Jharkhand, according to the central probe agency.
Amid the ongoing ED probe, the Jharkhand chief minister has alleged that the BJP, after failing to compete politically, has been “conspiring behind the curtains to uproot his government”.
The chief minister said a strong reply would be given to organisations with ill intentions towards the state.
Soren had earlier faced nine hours of ED’s questioning in an illegal mining case in November 2022.
(With PTI input)