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.
