Hemant Soren Files Case Against Probe Agency Under SC/ST Act

Ranchi: 

Amid speculation about Hemant Soren’s imminent arrest, the Jharkhand chief minister has filed a case against senior officers of the Enforcement Directorate’s Ranchi office under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The complaint, filed at the SC/ST police station in Ranchi on Wednesday, pertains to the agency’s search operation at Mr Soren’s residence in New Delhi on Monday, and claims that the action harassed and maligned him and his entire community.

The Jharkhand Chief Minister belongs to a Scheduled Tribe.

“An FIR has been lodged against some senior ED officials… we got the application from the chief minister,” Ranchi Senior Superintendent of Police, Chandan Kumar Sinha, told news agency PTI.

Mr Soren is being questioned by the ED at his residence in Ranchi in connection with a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam. There is a strong buzz that he may be arrested and his party has reportedly also planned for that eventuality.

The agency’s operation at the Jharkhand chief minister’s Delhi home had turned dramatic on Monday after ED officials reached in the morning to question him, but could not find him there. They seized ₹ 36 lakh in cash and a BMW X7, which costs over ₹ 1 crore. In his complaint on Wednesday, Mr Soren has stated that he is not the owner of the BMW and does not own any illicit cash.

The BJP had claimed that Mr Soren had gone ‘missing’ and the party’s Jharkhand chief, Babulal Marandi, had also shared a poster seeking information about Mr Soren and announcing a reward of ₹ 11,000 for information on his whereabouts.