New Delhi: A team of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is currently at the Ranchi residence of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren to question him in connection with two cases of alleged money laundering.
As ThePrint reported earlier, ED officials arrived at Soren’s Delhi residence Monday to question him but ended up seizing Rs 36 lakhs in cash and a BMW SUV when they could not find him. There was little clarity on Soren’s whereabouts until Tuesday afternoon when he resurfaced outside his residence in Ranchi where he chaired a meeting of legislators of the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led alliance.
Soren has been under the probe agency’s lens in two money laundering cases emanating from the state. The first pertains to alleged illegal transfer of ownership of a parcel of land in Ranchi, while the other is linked to “rampant” illegal stone mining in Sahibganj district.
ThePrint looks at both these cases involving Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren.
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Ranchi land parcel case
Soren’s questioning Wednesday and the 10 summonses issued to him before it pertain to this case based on a First Information Report (FIR) filed under IPC sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), and 471 (using forged document as genuine) in June 2022 on the complaint of a tax collector employed with the Ranchi Municipal Corporation.
The complainant accused one Pradip Bagchi of forging documents to claim ownership of 4.55 acres of land at Morabadi Mouza in Ranchi which he then sold to Kolkata-based Jagatbandhu Tea Estate Pvt Ltd.
Based on the complaint, the ED registered an Enforcement Complaint Information Report (ECIR), or FIR equivalent, in this case on 21 October 2022. The ED contends that proceeds of crime generated through the fraudulent sale of this parcel of land was used to acquire 7.16 acres of land in Ranchi’s Bajra area.
The agency in its prosecution complaint said it found that the parcel of land in question was valued at Rs 7 crore in the sale deed between Jagatbandhu Tea Estate Pvt Ltd and Bagchi — nearly one-third of its market value of Rs 20.75 crore. It also alleged that though the land was priced at Rs 7 crore in the sale deed, only Rs 25 lakh exchanged hands.
Further, the ED accused now-suspended IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan who was the deputy commissioner of Ranchi from 15 July 2020 to 11 July 2022, when the alleged transfer of ownership took place, of aiding the forgery of documents to show Pradeep’s father Prafulla Bagchi as the owner of the property. This, the agency said, was done through the Office of the Registrar of Assurances in Kolkata and the local circle office in Ranchi.
According to the prosecution complaint, the acquisition of this parcel of land in Ranchi on lease by the government for defence purposes predates Independence. For its use, a monthly sum was since being paid as rent to one Jayant Karnad, the descendant of its legal owner B.M. Lakhsham Rao.
The ED claimed that Karnad sold the parcel of land to 14 persons, resulting in a dispute that was pending before Chhavi Ranjan during his tenure as Ranchi DC. Ranjan, however, chose to verbally direct the local circle officer to visit the Office of the Registrar of Assurances in Kolkata to verify the ownership of the land, it added.
It was after this that documents were allegedly tampered with to show Bagchi as the owner of the land.
The agency added that Pradip Bagchi had reached out to one Prem Prakash, a purported Ranchi-based power broker with “access to highly placed government officials and ministers” to seek help in selling this parcel of land. The land was then sold to one Amit Agarwal, a “beneficial owner” of Jagatbandhu Tea Estate Pvt Ltd. Prem Prakash and Amit Agarwal are very “close associates” of Soren, the ED alleged in its prosecution complaint.
The agency has so far arrested 14 individuals in the case, 10 of whom have been named in the chargesheet. It has also provisionally attached six land parcels in Jharkhand worth an estimated Rs 236 crore in connection with this case.
Soren has dismissed the allegations, arguing that the parcel of land in question is a “Bhumihari land” which could not be sold or altered in any manner.
Sahibganj ‘illegal’ stone mining case
Soren was questioned once by the ED in November 2022 as part of its probe in this case which stems from an FIR filed by Sahibganj district police against the CM’s MLA representative Pankaj Mishra, who the agency has dubbed the “kingpin” in the case.
The ED alleged that Mishra used his “political clout” to “control” the illegal mining business in Sahibganj through which he acquired approximately Rs 42 crore as proceeds. Mishra was arrested by the agency on 19 July 2022 and is currently in judicial custody.
Earlier this month, a team of ED officials raided 12 locations in the state including premises owned by Soren’s press adviser Abhishek Prasad ‘Pintu’ in connection with its probe into the case.
Simultaneously, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) booked Mishra along with Bishnu Yadav and Pavitra Yadav of Maa Amba Stone Works for their alleged role in “rampant” stone mining in the district that it claimed generated over Rs 1,200 crore in proceeds.
“PMLA Investigation revealed that Pankaj Mishra, who enjoys political clout, being the representative of the Chief Minister, MLA from Barhait, Sahibganj, Jharkhand controls the illegal mining businesses as well as inland ferry services in Sahibganj and its adjoining areas through his accomplices. He exercises considerable control over the mining of stone chips and boulders as well as installation and operations of several crushers, set up across various mining sites in Sahibganj. Proceeds of crime amounting to Rs 42 crore approx. acquired by the accused Pankaj Mishra have been identified till date,” the ED had said in a statement in September 2022 after filing the prosecution complaint in the case.
Soren had in 2022 dismissed the allegations arguing that even if all rakes operating in Sahibganj lifted only stone mined illegally, it would not have extracted 8 crore MT that would have fetched a royalty of Rs 1,000 crore.
“It appears that you have not identified the loading of even a single rake without requisite challan as you have not taken action against any railway officer. You claim that approximately 6,500 rakes loaded stone in Sahibganj district during the past two years. Even if all these 6,500 rakes loaded only illegally mined stone, which cannot be the case, they would not be sufficient to transport the total quantity of 8 crore MT of illegally mined stone which would fetch a royalty of Rs 1,000 crore,” he had said in a letter to the agency.
Office-of-profit case against Hemant Soren
Besides these two cases, Jharkhand CM and JMM working president Hemant Soren is also staring at an office-of-profit case over which Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan had sought a report from the Election Commission last year. The governor had told reporters last month that he is in the process of evaluating the report of the Election Commission.
The allegations pertain to the allotment of a stone chips mining lease allegedly to himself when Soren was the minister in charge of the mining department.
This case dates back to February 2022 when a delegation of BJP leaders led by former CM Raghubar Das submitted a memorandum to the governor seeking disqualification of CM Soren under provisions of section 9A of The Representation of the People Act, 1951 for allotting the lease to himself.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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