VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, Jan. 17: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is set to issue a fresh summons to former DSP of Sahibganj Pramod Kumar Mishra after the Supreme Court on Monday rejected writ petition of the Jharkhand Government challenging jurisdiction of the ED to summon and question its officials in Barharwa toll case.
Well placed sources confided that the ED is likely to send him summons within a couple of days and that will be third summons to Pramod Kumar Mishra whom the ED wants to examine. But the Jharkhand government headed by Hemant Soren opposed summons tooth and nail and challenged jurisdiction of the ED to examine its investigating officer.
The big ticket illegal stone mining scam to the tune of Rs. 1000 crore was rooted in the Barharwa toll case which the ED is investigating. A Pakur-based businessman Shambhu Nandan Kumar had lodged an FIR in June 2020 at the Barharwa police station in Sahibganj district against Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s MLA representative Pankaj Mishra, Minister Alamgir Alamgir Alam and others for provoking an attack on him as he refused their demand to withdraw from the toll plaza auction. As the DSP Pramod Mishra had supervised that case and gave a clean chit to Pankaj Mishra and the minister.
Sources said that the ED wants to question Pramod Mishra to get information and facts of this case that so far may be unknown to the ED. The Sahibganj police is the original prosecution agency of the Barharwa toll plaza case and the fate of the case under money laundering investigation largely depends on how the prosecution agency has investigated it. However, the ED in its investigation has gone far beyond the police investigation which the police otherwise concluded a mere case of clash. But the police investigation is full of flaws. Since Pramod Mishra had supervised the investigation the ED wants to seek his assistance to investigate this case.
Notably, the bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice M. M. Sundresh on Monday dismissed the criminal writ petition 533/2022 filed by the state of Jharkhand. The apex court asked the state government to first approach the Jharkhand High Court to seek remedy rather than knocking the door of the Supreme Court.
Sources said that after the apex court rejected the Jharkhand government, there is no instant legal hurdle to summon the officer. The ED sent him the first summons on December 6 last year asking him to turn up before the zonal office of the ED on December 12. Pramod Mishra skipped that summons. The ED sent him the second summons right after that.
On this, the Jharkhand government shot off a letter to the ED and asked not to summon its police officials for the purpose of questioning in the illegal mining case as the state government has filed a petition before the Supreme Court challenging jurisdiction of the ED. State home secretary Rajiv Arun Ekka, in this regard, shot off a letter to the ED via the office of the Jharkhand DGP. In the wake of an official letter by the state government, the ED decided not to summon Pankaj Mishra or any other police official in the Barharwa case till the matter was decided by the Supreme Court.
Earlier, the ED had questioned Jharkhand police ASI Sarfuddin Khan who was the investigating officer of this case. It was disclosed that the Sahibganj police gave a clean chit to minister Alamgir Alam and Pankaj Mishra in the Barharwa toll plaza case within 24 hours the FIR was lodged.
Pramod Mishra allegedly did not examine digital evidence. Sarfuddin Khan told the ED that he was obeying the order of DSP Pramod Mishra.