Baseless and biased: Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on ED summons on land scam

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has termed the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) seventh summons as “baseless, biased”, indicating that he will not appear before the agency.

On Tuesday afternoon, a special envoy of the Chief Minister’s Secretariat handed over a sealed letter to the Ranchi zonal office of the ED.

Sources in the Chief Minister’s Secretariat are maintaining silence on the contents of the letter.

But ED sources confirmed that Soren’s letter criticized the federal agency, calling its investigation into allegations of money laundering over a land “scam” in Ranchi and the chief minister’s role in it as “baseless and biased”. .

The letter also accused the ED of indulging in a media trial against him and hinted at taking legal recourse against the summons.

The letter claims that the ED investigation is not ‘based on finding the truth’ but is a targeted move against him. He also expressed his displeasure over the alleged media trial conducted by the agency, saying it was aimed at tarnishing his image and defaming his work in the political field,” a source in the ED office said, quoting the letter.

The ED had issued its seventh summons to Soren on Saturday and the Chief Minister was to respond by Sunday regarding the date, place and time of his appearance before the ED.

Soren had filed a petition in the Supreme Court and Jharkhand High Court demanding protection from ED action. Both the courts rejected his petitions.

Amid speculation that Soren’s wife Kalpana will become the Chief Minister, the ruling alliance (JMM-Congress-RJD) has called a meeting of MLAs here on Wednesday.