VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, Nov 2: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has claimed that Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren was involved in illegal mining, and he got the proceeds of crime and laundered the same with the help of Pankaj Mishra, Prem Prakash, and Amit Agrawal.
The ED has relied upon the statement of former JMM treasure Ravi Kejriwal and the same has been corroborated through several dubious transactions between Prem Prakash and Amit Agrawal.
Notably, the ED on Tuesday sent a notice to the Jharkhand Chief minister for his appearance for his questioning in the illegal mining case. He has been asked to turn up on Thursday morning at the zonal office of the agency in Ranchi. But the CM is most likely to challenge the summon of the ED and he may approach the court also.
The ED in its prosecution complaint has mentioned this fact and has named him among the recipients of the heist of the illegal mining.
Ravi Kejriwal was once close to the Shibu Soren family. The ED took his statement on July 21.
“One day, he was present in the office of the Chief Minister, when the CM directed Pankaj Mishra to directly hand over the funds coming from Santhal Parganas from stone mining and sand mining business to Prem Prakash. It was also discussed further that Prem Prakash will hand over the funds to Amit Agarwal. He also stated that Prem Prakash is very close to Hemant Soren and Amit Agrawal. He also stated that Smt. Pooja Singhal was given the additional charge of mining secretary, Jharkhand due to her proximity with Amit Agarwal. He further stated that Prem Prakash is very close to Hemant Soren and Pintu (Abhishek Prasad) and has developed good relations with them in the last couple of years,” Ravi Kejriwal stated before the ED.
The ED has stated that to corroborate this allegation the agency investigated whether or not there was any parking, accommodation and laundering of illegal stone mining money by Prem Prakash and Amit Agrawal.
“Investigation also reveals that from the Punjab National Bank account 21881132000179, of M/s Herbal Green Solutions Pvt. Ltd, which is in receipt of cash amounting to Rs 5,65,17,000/-, payments worth Rs 5,31,18,000/- to one company M/s Aurora Studio Pvt. Ltd, a company of Amit Agarwal, during the period 26.08.2020 to 08.01.2021 were also identified. In addition to this, there are several incriminating transactions done through bank accounts through several entities, which are under investigation,” the prosecution complaint reads.
“Thus, the above transactions also corroborate the statement of Ravi Kejriwal given on 21.07.2022,” the ED has claimed in its prosecution complaint.
This clearly states that ED is convinced that Chief Minister Hemant Soren was fully aware of the illegal stone mining in Sahibganj, and he received the proceeds of the crime.
ED summons CM, and asked to appear on Thursday
The ED has asked Chief Minister Hemant Soren to turn-up for questioning to clarify whether he was involved in the illegal mining and received slush money. However, it is most likely that the Chief Minister will approach the court to seek a stay on the notice.
“Yes, we have called the CM. we want to examine him,” said sources in the ED. The agency is most likely to ask him about his relations with Pankaj Mishra, Prem Prakash, and Amit Agrawal. He will be confronted with the findings of the investigations.
During a raid at the premises of a chartered accountant the ED had seized some documents related to Hemant Soren, his wife Kalpana Murmu and others. The ED seized one yellow colour file marked as April 2019 to June 2022 containing all bank details of Hemant Soren, Kalpana Soren, Nitil Soren and Bishwajit Soren. Another file containing miscellaneous loose papers related to statements of accounts of Kalpana Soren.
