VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, Dec 17: Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren produced himself bravely to answer the Enforcement Directorate’s questions in the illegal mining in Sahibganj and reiterated that he will reply to every question in future too eye to eye. The government was also fine till the ED summoned Sahibganj DSP Rajendra Dubey and another police officer. But why did it become nervous and swiftly moved the Supreme Court after the ED summoned the then Sahibganj DSP Pramod Mishra?
Not only that. The Jharkhand government also shot off a letter to the ED not to summon Pramod Mishra till the Supreme Court decided its SLP filed to challenge the jurisdiction of the agency in summoning the State police officials.
This step has surprised everyone, but not the ED.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) suspects that Mishra had his role beyond the Barharwa toll plaza case and he may be a key cog of the illegal stone mining syndicate in Sahibganj which is worth Rs. 1000 crore.
If the sources are to be believed during the probe of illegal mining the ED has got several incriminating and hard evidences indicating involvement of Pramod Kumar Mishra and that may upset the stomach of many top persons.
So, the ED has decided not to call Mishra for questioning in the wake of the letter of the state government to the ED even as the Supreme Court has neither heard it nor put a stay on it. “Let the State government exhaust this option,” said a source.
However, the ED is quite watchful over the move of the state government swiftly reaching to the Supreme Court to thwart attempts of the ED to question its official position.
The ED perceives it as another move of the government to stymie the probe and barricade the ED. The agency believes that the government is trying to keep Pramod Mishra away from the ED as he may be knowing many dirty secrets of the illegal mining, its modus operandi and the syndicate operating this.
Mishra is a 1994 batch officer who rose to become the DSP. He was posted in Sahibganj as DSP of Barharwa subdivision where he served for a considerable period. He was transferred to the police headquarters in September last year. He had supervised the Barharwa toll plaza case involving Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s local representative Pankaj Mishra and minister Alamgir Alam in June 2020. He supervised and finalized the case within 24 hours after the FIR was lodged. The Barharwa case is the prime case which the ED has taken up for the investigation in the illegal mining case.
