ED asks Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren to record statement again

Ranchi: The Enforcement Directorate has issued a fresh summons to Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and asked him to again record his statement in a money laundering case between January 27 and 31, official sources said on Monday.

The central agency recorded his statement for the first time in the case on January 20 after investigators went to his official residence here.

They recorded his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) during the about seven hours they spent at his home.

Soren has been asked to join the investigation again between January 27 and 31, and a Enforcement Directorate team will go to his residence like the last time, the sources said.

The recording of statement did not finish that day (January 20), and hence, the chief minister has been asked to join the probe again, they said.

The agency is understood to have put about 25-30 questions to Soren during the last week questioning in the money laundering case linked to alleged instances of illegal land deals.

After the ED officials had left, the chief minister had said a conspiracy has been hatched against him.

Soren, 48, who is also the executive president of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), had earlier skipped seven summonses of the ED, and gave his nod for questioning when the eighth summons was sent.

The investigation pertains to a "huge racket of illegal change of ownership of land by the mafia" in Jharkhand, according to the central probe agency.

The ED has so far arrested 14 people in the case, including 2011-batch IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan who served as the director of the state's social welfare department and deputy commissioner of Ranchi.