The crisis for the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) is far from getting over. While there has been buzz over Hemant Soren’s probable dismissal by the Governor on the ground of violation of Representation of The People Act, 1951, Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned him for his alleged involvement in an illegal mining and money laundering case.
Soren has been asked by the ED to present himself before the central probe agency tomorrow.
Earlier, the ED had filed a chargesheet before a Ranchi special court against Pankaj Mishra, Bacchu Yadav and Prem Prakash under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection to a case of illegal mining and extortion.
Mishra, who is allegedly a close aide of Hemant Soren along with Yadav and Prakash are now in judicial custody. Mishra was arrested by ED on July 19, 2022 followed by arrests of Yadav on August 4 and Prem Prakash on August 25.
ED in its statement said that being close to Soren, Mishra enjoys political clout and allegedly controls the illegal mining business in Soren’s assembly constituency Barhait. In 2019, Soren fought elections from two constituencies- Dumka and Barhait. While he kept the later, his brother Basant Soren won the bypoll from Dumka.
“He exercises considerable control over the mining of stone chips and boulders as well as installation and operations of several crushers, set up across various mining sites in Sahibganj,” the ED statement added.
Speaking to Outlook, Rajya Sabha MP and state president of Jharkhand BJP Deepak Prakash said, “Law is taking its own course. The hands of law are far-fetched and it doesn’t leave anybody- be it the ruler or anyone else.”
Referring to the long-term fight of the BJP against corruption in the state, he said that they have planned several protests across the state in coming days. “From November 7-13, we will demonstrate against the corruption at the block levels across the state. We have plans to do the same in district levels between November 19-23.”
“We will gradually unravel the corruptions of this government,” the state president added.
On the other, Hatia BJP MLA Navin Jaiswal while talking to Outlook said, “ED must have got some solid clues and thus has summoned him. Law is doing its own work.”
Notably, it was only on BJP’s complaint against Soren’s alleged allotment of mining lease to himself and his family members that the Governor sought the opinion of the Election commission.
However, the spokesperson of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha Supriya Bhattacharya when contacted by Outlook, said, “I will give the official statement soon and prior to that I don’t want to comment in it.”
JMM has been for long accusing the BJP of efforts to topple its government. Hemant Soren earlier even took the efforts to safeguard his MLAs by hiding them in hotels.
Where did it all start from?
The money laundering case against Soren and his associates started with an assault case against Panakaj Mishra regarding a tendering of a toll plaza. One local trader Shambhu Bhagat was allegedly beaten on behalf of Mishra to prevent him from participating in the tendering process.
Upon preliminary investigation when certain connections between the toll plaza tendering and the illegal coal mining was found, the ED took over the case.
Pankaj Mishra had a mining lease under the name of Mahakal Stone Works. Prior to his arrest, though he said that the mining was yet to be started, he used to enjoy huge contacts and power over mining department due to his alleged connection to the CM.
On one hand, the ED found clues from the investigation on tendering of toll plaza, on the other on May 6, it recovered Rs. 17 crores cash from the house of Suman Kumar who had close links with now-suspended IAS officer Puja Singhal, the former mining secretary.
The raid at Singhal’s place however was connected to the officer’s engagement in a 2008 MGNREGA fund swindling in Khunti district.
Since ED took over the investigation into the illegal mining and money laundering case, it has conducted 47 searches across the country and seized cash amount of Rs. 5.34 crores. It froze the bank balance of Rs. 13.32 crores. It also froze inland vessel MV Infralink -III, reg. No- WB 1809, five stone crushers, two Hyva trucks along with incriminating documents and AK 47 assault rifles.
The recent call of ED for the investigation is connected to the illegal mining case related to Pankaj Mishra.
Election Commission asked Governor to dismiss Soren?
In August last week, the news got floated that Election Commission had recommended the Governor Ramesh Bais to dismiss Hemant Soren from his CM post for his alleged violation of People’s Representation Act.
The reports said that the Chief Minister was found misusing his position to allot a stone mining lease to his own name last year. Soren, who also heads the mining department of the government was accused of violating Section 9(A) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
The section notes, “a person shall be disqualified if, and for so long as, there subsists a contract entered into by him in the course of his trade or business with the appropriate Government for the supply of goods to, or for the execution of any works undertaken by, that Government.”
Notably, a letter of intent for the mining lease in Ranchi’s Argora area though was issued in June, 2021, the state Advocate General Rajiv Ranjan on April 8, 2022 told the Jharkhand HC that the government had made a mistake and the lease had been surrendered.
The Governor Ramesh Bais received a complaint from BJP regarding the alleged irregularities in the mining lease and as per Article 192 of the constitution sought the EC’s opinion.
However, till now despite several requests from Soren government, Governor has not officially revealed the recommendations of the EC. Recently, in an interview Bais said that he has asked for further opinion on the issue.
