An Enforcement Directorate (ED) team on Monday visited the Delhi residence of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren to question him in connection with a money laundering investigation but found the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader ‘missing’.

Official sources claimed Soren was “missing” and could not be contacted by the federal agency but a family member alleged that a “false” narrative was being set to “delegitimise” the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader’s position, PTI reported.

The member, who did not wish to be identified, claimed there were repeated communications to ED and compliance to the summons including willingness to record his statement on January 31, 2024 at 1 pm at his Ranchi residence.

Officials of the federal probe agency accompanied by Delhi Police personnel reached the 5/1 Shanti Niketan building in South Delhi around 9 am.

Also Read: Enforcement Directorate reaches Hemant Soren’s Delhi residence after he skips 9 summons

Several ED officials were seen leaving the premises at around 10.30 pm but it was not clear if all members of the team had left. A source had earlier said the ED teams will be at the residence till Soren returns and that authorities are also keeping a vigil at the Delhi airport, PTI reported.

Soren had left Ranchi for Delhi on January 27, with his party saying on Monday that he had gone for personal work and will be back.

But the Jharkhand unit of the BJP claimed that the chief minister has been “absconding” for the last 18 hours, fearing action of the ED, and urged Governor C P Radhakrishnan to take cognisance of the matter as the “credibility and reputation of Jharkhand are at stake”.

The ED had questioned Soren at his official residence in Ranchi on January 20 in the case and had issued a fresh summons to him asking him to confirm his availability for questioning on either January 29 or January 31. Soren had sent a communication to the agency but had not confirmed the date and time for questioning.

Also Read: After fresh ED summons, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren’s ‘unplanned visit’ to Delhi

In an email to the federal agency on Sunday, the 48-year-old JMM executive president alleged that the ED actions were “motivated by political agenda” to disrupt the state government’s functioning and claimed that its insistence to record his statement again on or before January 31 reeked of malice, PTI reported.

“Preserve video recording of seven-hour questioning (of January 20) to make available to the court of law,” Soren said in the email while agreeing to record his statement on January 31 at the Ranchi residence.

In the state capital Ranchi, security was tightened at the CM House, Raj Bhavan and central government offices on Monday.

A massive rally was taken out by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) workers in Ranchi accusing the ED of targeting Soren, who is the executive president of the the party. Protests were also held in Jamshedpur and other parts of the state.

Also Read: ‘Hemant Soren to continue as CM’: Allies back JMM leader as ED tightens noose

The investigation pertains to a “huge racket of illegal change of ownership of land by the mafia” in Jharkhand, according to the 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.

(With inputs from PTI)