VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, Oct 20: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday caught Pankaj Mishra off guard when he was allegedly talking to someone over the phone that belonged to his associate, well-placed sources claimed.
Insiders said that the agency has found that phone calls were frequently made to as many as 11 mobile numbers and mostly belong to senior officials.
The ED on Thursday detained Chandan Yadav and Suraj Pandit from the RIMS premises who are said to be the drivers of Pankaj Mishra. Chandan Yadav is very close to Pankaj Mishra. However, the FIR is yet to be lodged.
Pankaj Mishra is the MLA representative of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and he is currently lodged at RIMS paying ward for treatment under judicial custody. He is an accused of the illegal stone mining scam worth Rs 1,000 crore and the ED filed a prosecution complaint against him.
Pankaj Mishra was apparently talking to a senior police official of Sahibganj when the ED detained his men for illegally providing their mobile phones to Pankaj Mishra to talk to several people.
The ED has long been getting complaints and intelligence inputs about high-profile people accused of money laundering using mobile phones from jail confinements.
Pankaj Mishra called and threatened me from jail: claims Zakir Sheikh
The senior JMM functionary and up-pramukha of Patna block, Zakir Sheikh that Pankaj Mishra had once called him over the phone and threatened for raising voice against anomalies in the distribution of food grains to Paharia tribes.
“Don’t jump too much and stay quiet. I am coming out of jail within two months and I will settle everything. Don’t forget your limit and stay at home,” Zakir Sheikh recollected that call of Pankaj Mishra.
Zakir Sheikh said that he was so terrified that he didn’t even go to his office. “There was a complaint that Paharia tribes were not given food grains for around nine months and the same was siphoned off. A local BJP leader was regularly raising this matter. Since the matter is related to the Barhet assembly which is the constituency of the Chief Minister I intervened in this matter. I spoke to the BDO also,” he said.
Zakir Sheikh said that one day he got a call from an unknown number. “I don’t remember that phone number but I still remember his voice. He warned me. I was so terrified that I stop visiting the office. I confided in some people that Pankaj Mishra called me. He can harm me,” he said.
