ED arrests Hemant Soren after high drama in Ranchi, minister Champai Soren picked as successor

 Before his arrest, Hemant Soren met the governor — with an ED team that came to question him — and submitted his resignation as CM. 

Hemant Soren tenders his resignation as Jharkhand CM to Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan in the presence of the newly elected CM, Champai Soren, at Raj Bhawan in Ranchi Wednesday. State minister Alamgir Alam is also seen | ANI

MAYANK KUMAR, The print, 31 January, 2024: Hemant Soren tenders his resignation as Jharkhand CM to Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan in the presence of the newly elected CM, Champai Soren, at Raj Bhawan in Ranchi Wednesday. State minister Alamgir Alam is also seen | ANI

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New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Wednesday arrested Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) executive president Hemant Soren in a case of alleged money laundering related to the “illegal” sale and purchase of land parcels in state capital Ranchi.

Before his arrest, Soren met the governor — accompanied by a team of ED officials who had come to his residence earlier in the day to question him for the second time in the case — and submitted his resignation as chief minister.  

Simultaneously, lawmakers from the ruling coalition — including the JMM,  the Congress, the RJD and the CPIML — went to the Raj Bhavan, and expressed their support to appoint state minister Champai Soren as CM.

JMM Rajya Sabha MP Mahua Maji addressed reporters outside Raj Bhavan Wednesday evening and said party leaders got to know that Soren was likely to be arrested as soon as his resignation as CM was accepted. 

The case against Hemant Soren dates back to 2022, when a tax collector with the Ranchi Municipal Corporation filed a case against one Pradip Bagchi for allegedly forging documents to claim ownership of defence land. It has been alleged that the land was sold fraudulently to a Kolkata-based company.

In its prosecution complaint, the ED has alleged that IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan, who was deputy commissioner of Ranchi between July 2020 and July 2022, hatched a conspiracy with Bagchi and other administrative officials — along with two close aides of Soren, Prem Prakash and Amit Agarwal — to sell the defence land.

The ED has alleged that the proceeds of crime generated in the “fraudulent sale” were used to purchase 7.16 acres of land in the Bajra area of Ranchi. 

In a letter to the ED Monday, Soren refuted the charges and said the piece of land in question can’t be sold or alienated in any manner, and that it had been owned by one Pahan family for five decades.

The ED had sent Soren a total of 10 summonses before he gave time for the first time for questioning in the case on 20 January. Earlier this week, a team of ED had come to raid Soren’s residence in Delhi but he was not present there, leading to speculation about his whereabouts and political fate.

He wrote to the ED Monday, confirming 1pm Wednesday as the day to record his statement.

Soren is the 15th person arrested in the case. The others include Amit Agarwal, Prem Prakash and Chhavi Ranjan, who are in judicial custody. 

(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)