RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, Aug.8: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today issued summons to Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren asking him to appear before it on August 14 for questioning in a land scam case.
Earlier, the ED had questioned Soren for about 10 hours on November 18, 2022, in the illegal mining case. In this inquiry, the ED had asked the CM many questions related to stone mining.
A day before the CM was questioned he had challenged the probe agency by writing an open letter.
On November 17 last year, Soren restrained the ED from making sensational revelations saying reckless statements not only tarnish the reputation of concerned state departments and personnel but also the image of the state.
The CM’s letter to ED assistant director Deovrat Jha was in response to the summons the ED issued on November 7, 2022. A copy of the letter was provided to all media persons before the CM left for the ED office.
“……………It does not befit the ED to make sensational statements of illegal mining of Rs 1000 crore without ascertaining the facts and figures and that too after carrying out some 50 raids in an investigation going on for almost a year. I hope and trust that you will reconsider your claims and refrain from making sensational statement which are unsubstantiated by any facts or figures as such reckless statements not only tarnish the reputation of concerned state departments and personnel but the image of the state of Jharkhand suffers,” one of the paragraphs of the letter reads.
The CM has written the word before challenging the assessment of the scam amount (Rs 1000 crore) presenting facts and figures related to stone mining across Jharkhand. He also expressed his concern over the wrong assessment by an agency like ED.
The letter suggested that the chief minister does not see any clear purpose and objectives behind the ED sending him summons to question in case of the illegal mining.
“Any state endowed with natural wealth is also afflicted by the curse of illegal mining and Jharkhand is no exception. The undersigned is determined to weed out illegal mining from the state of Jharkhand and welcomes any sincere and honest assistance in this regard from any agency. However, the purpose and objectives of the summons to the undersigned is unclear,” first paragraph of the letter reads.
In the letter, the chief minister suspected the role of the BJP and JMM’s former treasurer Ravi Kejriwal behind his summons from the ED office.
“It also appears that the BJP, the main opposition party in the state, has caused a statement to be given by Ravi Kejriwal to falsely implicate me in illegal mining. Ravi Kejriwal was a member of JMM and the treasurer of the party till he was removed in 2020. Subsequently, a FIR was also filed against him by JMM. Since then, Ravi Kejriwal has become my sworn enemy and I would not be surprised if he has made false allegations against me to settle personal scores,” the letter read.
