The complaint is related to the agency’s search operation at the chief minister’s residence in Delhi.
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 Rs 36 lakh in cash and a BMW X7, which costs over Rs 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 Rs 11,000 for information on his whereabouts.
The chief minister, however, appeared in Ranchi on Tuesday and alleged that searching his home in his absence on Monday was “uncalled for” and “unconstitutional”. His party also said that the Enforcement Directorate had accepted Mr Soren’s request to question him at his Ranchi home on Wednesday.
‘Maligning Community’
In his complaint, Mr Soren refers to himself as a “member of Scheduled Tribe” and mentions a few people by name – Mr. Kapil Raj, Mr. Deovrat Jha, Mr. Anupam Kumar, Mr. Aman Patel – as well as “unknown others” and “all officers of the Directorate of Enforcement, Ranchi Zonal Office, having their office at Hinoo, Ranchi”.
He claimed the search operation at the Jharkhand Bhawan in New Delhi harassed and maligned him and his entire community.
Mr Soren said he was in Delhi on Saturday and Sunday and found out on Monday that the search was carried out on the premises. “This purported search was without any notice to me nor was my presence required on 29th January 2024 at New Delhi by the abovenamed persons,” the chief minister said in his complaint.
“In fact, the abovenamed persons had required me to be present at Ranchi on 29th and 31 January 2024,” he added.
‘BMW Not Mine’
Mr Soren also claimed that the officers had leaked “selective misinformation” that a blue BMW car seized from the premises was his and a huge amount of illicit cash belonging to him had also been found.
“I am not the owner of the car of BMW make which the abovenamed persons claim to have seized. I do not own any illicit cash. The abovenamed persons and unknown others who are not members of any Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe have done the aforesaid acts intentionally to humiliate me in public,” the chief minister alleged.
“My family members and I have suffered and experienced immense mental, psychological and emotional harm because of the acts committed by the above-named persons and unknown others who are not members of any SC or ST. I call upon you to register this FIR and take steps in accordance with law,” he said in the complaint.
