Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren Summoned By Probe Agency Again

New Delhi:

The Enforcement Directorate has summoned Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren for a second time for questioning in a case linked to alleged money laundering.

Mr Soren had skipped the first summon and dared the central agency to arrest him. Later, he had sought more time.

The Enforcement Directorate, or ED, has told the Jharkhand Chief Minister to come to questioning on November 17.

Mr Soren was first summoned by the ED at its Ranchi office on November 3. But he did not appear and instead addressed workers of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, or JMM, which has a coalition state government with the Congress, outside his house.

Mr Soren called the ED’s summon to him a “part of a plot to harass a tribal Chief Minister”.

He accused the BJP-led central government of letting fugitive businessmen go scot-free while being busy with political vendetta.

The vendetta charge is part of a larger faceoff.

Mr Soren faces disqualification as MLA on the BJP’s complaint for granting himself a mining lease while holding office in 2021. The Election Commission has reportedly recommended to Governor Ramesh Bais that action be taken against him. But the Governor has kept that hanging, even though Mr Soren has asked for the “envelope” to be opened immediately.

Before that came allegations of “Operation Lotus” – the BJP allegedly trying to unseat the JMM-Congress alliance – after some MLAs were stopped in neighbouring West Bengal with around Rs 50 lakh in cash.