JMM executive president and former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Friday was sent to five-day Enforcement Directorate custody by a PMLA court. The central agency had arrested him on Wednesday night (January 31) after more than seven hours of questioning in connection with an alleged land fraud case.
The special PMLA court had on Thursday sent Hemant Soren to judicial custody for a day until the next hearing. The ED had sought 10 days custody for him. After hearing all sides, the court had kept February 2 for further hearing.
The case pertains to an alleged illegal possession of certain immovable assets apart from his purported links with members of the ‘land mafia’. The central agency has alleged that “huge amounts of proceeds of crime generated by manipulation of official records by showing dummy sellers and purchasers in the guise of forged/ bogus documents to acquire huge parcels of land having value in crores”.
According to ED, the probe in the case is linked to a “huge racket of illegal change of ownership of land by the mafia” in the state.
So far, 14 people have been arrested in connection with the case. A 2011-batch IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan, who served as the director of the state’s Social Welfare Department and deputy commissioner of Ranchi, has also been arrested by the ED.
The ED had also seized Rs 36 lakh in cash and a luxury SUV from his residence in Delhi on Tuesday (January 30).
In the face of Soren’s imminent arrest, he had submitted his resignation as the Chief Minister of the state, and Champai Soren was elected as his successor, who was sworn-in as the Chief Minister of the state today.