Ranchi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has yet again issued summons to Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren in a money laundering case, agency sources said on Saturday. He has been asked to join the investigations in the case on August 24. This is the second time in August that ED has issued summons to the chief minister. BJP MP Nishikant Dubey has sarcastically reacted to this on X, formerly Twitter.
Earlier, the ED had summoned Soren in connection with an alleged land scam case on August 14. Soren was supposed to go to the agency's zonal office in Ranchi at 11 am. He, however, did not go citing he was busy with the preparations for the Independence Day celebrations.
In a letter that Soren wrote to the ED, he explained that being the chief minister of Jharkhand he was scheduled to hoist the national flag on August 15 and preparations for the celebrations started a week back. Soren said that August 14 is an important day and he has several meetings pre-scheduled on that day. He complained that issuing a summon on August 14 is a deliberate attempt to tarnish not only his image but also that of an elected government of Jharkhand. Also, he alleged that he was being targeted by the central agencies for not aligning with the central government.
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ED's fresh summons to Soren is being discussed in the political circle since morning. Nishikant Dubey tweeted that the ED has called "Raja Saheb" (referring to Soren) again for tea.
