Hemant Soren was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on January 31 in connection with a land scam case, shortly after he resigned as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand.
The resignation followed after the ED questioned him for over seven hours at his official Ranchi residence. He submitted his resignation to Jharkhand Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan, who has accepted it. After meeting with the Governor for half an hour, Mr. Soren was taken to the ED’s Ranchi office.
Mr. Soren has challenged his arrest in the Jharkhand High Court; the hearing will take place on February 1.
The land scam case pertains to the alleged purchase and sale of tribal land by forging documents between 2020 and 2022. ED officials had visited Mr. Soren’s Delhi residence for questioning on Monday; however, he was not found there. He was untraced for 32 hours, emerging in Ranchi on January 30.
During Mr. Soren’s questioning, JMM workers protested near the CM’s house and Raj Bhavan. Tribal bodies in the state have also called for a bandh today to protest Mr. Soren’s arrest.
Champai Soren, a senior member of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and Transport Minister, has now been elected leader of the JMM Legislature Party. Mr. Champai, who is a five-time MLA from Seraikela, has stated that they have the support of 47 MLAs and have submitted a letter of support with their signatures to the Governor to stake claim to form the government.
The ruling alliance needs 41 MLAs to form the government. Members of the JMM-led alliance sought to meet the governor earlier to prove a majority by means of a parade of MLAs before him, but the Governor refused. “We are requesting the Governor to allow Mr. Champai to take oath as Chief Minister as we have elected him as the Legislature Party leader,” Banna Gupta, a Cabinet Minister said.
Mr. Hemant has lodged an FIR against the ED, saying that Monday’s search of his premises in Delhi was harassment.
In his FIR, Mr. Soren named four ED officials — Kapil Raj, Deovrat Jha, Anupam Kumar and Aman Patel
.In the FIR, Mr. Soren has described himself as a member of a Scheduled Tribe, and said that the search was to harass and malign his name and his entire community. He also rejected reports that cars and cash had been seized during the search.
“The purported search was done without my notice nor under my presence on January 29, 2024 at New Delhi by the above-named persons My family members and I have suffered and experienced immense mental, psychological and emotional harm because of the act committed by the above-named persons and unknown others who are not members of any SC or ST,” he said.
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