Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to give him three more weeks to record his statement in connection with a money-laundering probe into an illegal mining case, and dared them to arrest him directly instead of questioning him.
Mr. Soren had been summoned to appear at the ED’s Ranchi office on Thursday, but said he had to attend the Adivasi Nritya Mahotsav in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur instead.
“If I’ve committed any wrong and am guilty, why questioning? Just come and arrest me, if you can,” Mr. Soren said, while addressing a group of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) workers outside his official residence in Ranchi. The State’s BJP leaders, however, said that if the Chief Minister had not done anything wrong, he should not be afraid of facing the investigating agency.
Mr. Soren alleged that the ED summons was a ploy to harass a tribal Chief Minister and destabilise a democratically elected government, but insisted that he was not scared of the ED or the Central Bureau of Investigation. “This conspiracy will get a befitting reply by the people of Jharkhand,” he said, wondering why security personnel had been deployed at the local ED and BJP office. “[It is] because they’re scared of the people of Jharkhand,” he added.
The case pertains to illegal mining and transportation by a network allegedly involving Mr. Soren’s political aide and JMM leader Pankaj Mishra, who was arrested by the ED in July. While the agency has so far quantified the proceeds of alleged crime to be over ₹100 crore, it has seized ₹5.34 crore in cash, ₹13.32 crore lying in 50 bank accounts and one inland vessel worth ₹30 crore, besides stone crushers and trucks.
Earlier, the ED had also questioned Mr. Soren’s press advisor, Abhishek Prasad, and recorded his statement.
