ED summons Jharkhand CM for second time in 9 months

ED has asked Hemant Soren to appear before it on August 14 in an illegal mining case. Soren had earlier appeared before ED on November 17.

Ranchi:The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday summoned Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren to appear before it on August 14 in connection with an alleged illegal mining case. This is the second time in the last nine months that the chief minister has been summoned by the agency.

On November 17, 2022, Soren had been summoned by the ED and interrogated for around 10 hours. Earlier, on May 6, 2022, the ED had raided the premises of the then state mines secretary Pooja Singhal and her associates in the alleged misappropriation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) funds and recovered around Rs 19.41 crore. After investigation, ED said that most of the seized money belongs to heavyweight politicians and bureaucrats of the state.

Then, on July 8, 2022, the agency raided the offices and residences of MLA representative of the Chief Minister from Barhait, Pankaj Mishra and his associates in the illegal mining case. It arrested Pankaj Mishra on July 19, 2022, terming him as the mastermind.

Later, on August 25, 2022 the ED raided the premises of businessmen Prem Prakash and recovered two AK-47 rifles and 60 live cartridges. Meanwhile, Ravi Kejriwal, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha's (JMM) former treasurer, in a statement to the agency, mentioned about Soren.

After verification of Kejriwal's statement, many things came to the fore. The ED summoned Soren for the first time on November 1, 2023 asking him to appear before it on November 3. Soren wrote to ED seeking time following which, fresh summons were issued asking him to appear on November 17.