As ED looked for him at Delhi airport, Hemant Soren’s 1,200km road trip to Ranchi
As the Enforcement Directorate (ED) continued to keep a close watch on Delhi airport to trace Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, the 48-year-old Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader decided to make the 1,200km return trip to state capital Ranchi by road, people close to the chief minister said.
Soren reached Ranchi in the early hours of Tuesday and later, held a meeting of the ruling alliance lawmakers at the CM House to discuss the present political situation in the state. In photographs and videos shared by Hemant Soren’s office on X, a large number of MLAs and ministers were seen greeting Soren before taking part in the meeting. Soren’s wife Kalpana Soren was also present at the meeting.
Soren wasn’t at his south Delhi house when a team of ED officials reached at 7am on Monday. The federal agency searched the south Delhi house in Shanti Niketan on Monday and camped at the site for nearly 13 hours waiting for him. ED officials said they seized about ₹36 lakh cash, a BMW SUV that is suspected to be registered under a benami name in Haryana and some documents from his Delhi residence.
People close to the CM have said that he was “around” Delhi for legal consultation and stressed that there was no need for ED to come “looking” for him since he had already responded to ED.
ED on Saturday asked Soren to confirm his appearance either on January 29 or January 31 for further questioning in the money laundering probe. Soren informed ED’s Ranchi zone assistant director on Sunday that he will appear before the probe team at his residence at 1pm on January 31.
Airport officials said Hemant Soren landed at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport on Friday and was expected to fly out by another charter plane owned by a private firm. This aircraft landed at IGI on Saturday night and continues to remain parked at the airport. An ED team had been stationed at the Delhi airport in case he sought to fly back to Ranchi.
The central agency’s Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) probe against Soren pertains to an alleged land scam linked to the ownership of a parcel of land measuring 7.16 acres in the Bajra area of Ranchi. It has been alleged that the land parcel was acquired through proceeds of crime involving the illegal sale of army land. Soren has dismissed the case as politically motivated and said that the details of his assets are public.
The agency has so far arrested 14 people in the case, including 2011-batch IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan, who served as the director of the state’s social welfare department, deputy commissioner of Ranchi, Bhanu Pratap Prasad, and businessmen Amit Agrawal and Bishnu Agrawal who own shopping malls in Ranchi.