Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
“The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued a fresh summons to Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren for questioning in a money-laundering case linked to an alleged land scam on December 12,” official sources said.
“Soren has been asked to depose at the federal agency’s office in Ranchi and get his statement recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA),” the sources said on December 11. “The summons for the Chief Minister is for December 12,” they added.
This is the sixth notice issued to Mr. Soren, but he never deposed as he filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking protection from the ED action.
The probe pertains to the ED alleging that a “huge racket of illegal change of ownership of land by mafia was going on in Jharkhand”.
The agency has arrested 14 people in the case, including 2011-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Chhavi Ranjan who had earlier served as the director of the state social welfare department and deputy commissioner of Ranchi.
The 48-year-old Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader was questioned by the ED in November last year in another money-laundering case linked to alleged illegal mining in the state.