SUMAN K SHRIVASTAVA
Ranchi, Aug. 3: Hours after the West Bengal police reached New Delhi with a warrant to search the hide out of Siddharth Mazumdar, said to be close to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Jharkhand Chief Minister’s Press Advisor Abhishek Prasad alias Pintu appeared before the ED for questioning in the illegal mining case.
Abhishek, earlier summoned on August 1, had sought a fortnight’s time to appear for interrogation. But the ED denied giving such a long extension and said that he should join the probe at the earliest.
According to sources, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s MLA representative Pankaj Mishra, during his questioning referred to his name in some unknown contexts and said that Abhishek Prasad used to instruct him.
On the other hand, Siddharth Majumdar’s name has come up in the investigation of the Kolkata CID for taking the three Jharkhand Congress MLAs from Kolkata to Guwahati on July 29. It was Siddhartha who had also got the MLAs to meet Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on July 20, the CID sources said. Incidentally, the Delhi police stopped the Bengal police to raid Mazumdar’s house.
The Kolkata police have been super active to arrest the three Congress MLAs-Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kacchap, and Naman Bixal Kongari-with around Rs 50 lakh cash.
Also, the FIR lodged by Congress MLA Jaimangal Singh alias Anup Singh in Ranchi against the three party MLAs and naming Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma too has been referred to the Kolkata police. Anup has alleged that he was offered Rs 10 crore and a ministerial berth to topple the Soren government.
A day after, Jharkhand High Court lawyer Rajiv Kumar also ran into a trap of the Kolkata police allegedly laid by business man Amit Agrawal and was arrested with Rs 50 lakh cash. Rajiv was fighting a PIL filed in the Jharkhand High Court seeking a probe into shell companies allegedly linked to Hemant Soren, his family members, associates and Amit Agrawal.
No wonder, a political watcher said that fearing threat to his government from the BJP and a few disgruntled Congress MLAs, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has apparently joined hands with Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has seemingly put the Bengal police on the job to act against those working against the interests of the Jharkhand government.
Close aides of both the Chief Ministers are facing a probe from the Enforcement Directorate.
The ED, investigating the illegal mining of stone and granite in Sahibganj, has arrested Hemant Soren’s MLA representative Pankaj Mishra and raided the premises of his close associates, including Dahu Yadav.
Mamata Banerjee is also under fire for the mountain of cash recovered in the teachers’ recruitment scam. Her minister Partha Chaterjee, now removed, and the latter’s associate Arpita Mukherjee are under the ED custody. Notably, Bengal BJP leader Subhendu Adhikari has alleged that Mamata and her nephew Abhijit banerjee are the real culprits in the scam which ruined the career of over 80, 000 students.
Besides, Abhijeet’s wife Rujira Banerjee is also facing the ED probe in the Bengal coal scam.
Not only that. The Jharkhand police have been put on the job to book and investigate the cases against the rivals of Pankaj Mishra. The Sahibganj police have arrested Prakash Chandra Yadav, a stone mine operator, in an old Arms Act case. The Sahibganj administration has also sealed the crusher unit of Bajrangi Yadav, who happens to be national secretary of the BJP’s farmers’ wing.
The Jharkhand Government has also ordered a CID probe into alleged bunglings committed to hold Momentum Jharkhand, an industrial summit, held during Raghubar Das’ regime.
