ED arrests Soren an hour after party names his CM successor

RANCHI: Hemant Soren was arrested in a land scam by Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday, becoming the first sitting chief minister of Jharkhand to be taken into custody in a corruption case.
Hours before he was whisked away by ED officials, Hemant handed over his resignation to governor CP Radhakrishnan around 8.30pm, even as the governing Jharkhand Mukti Morcha announced the name of his close aide and transport minister Champai Soren as the next CM.
The arrest was a finale of the the cat-and-mouse game played by Hemant with the central agency for the last two days over his questioning in the alleged money laundering in a land scam that involved transfer and settlement of land parcels by forging records and documents.
A consensus could not be reached over the name of Hemant’s wife Kalpana Soren for the top post due to a family feud, with his sister-in-law and three-term MLA Sita Soren opposing her name, sources said. This led to six-term MLA Champai emerging as Hemant’s successor.
Equipped with a letter pledging support of 47 MLAs to Champai in the 81-member house, the governing coalition sought an appointment with the governor. However, till the time of going to press, the governor had not met the governing coalition and was silent about giving them an audience.
JMM leaders said that in case the governor refused to meet the coalition members, they are prepared to parade the MLAs before the Raj Bhavan and demonstrate their strength. “We are ready for a floor test as per time allowed by Raj Bhavan but before that, it has to pay credence to the fact that even after Hemant’s resignation, the existing coalition enjoys a majority,” said a JMM leader.

Earlier, flanked by ED sleuths, Soren went to Raj Bhavan, sporting a smile, and was taken away soon after he submitted his resignation. Later, JMM filed a case in high court, challenging his arrest. Nearly three hours after Hemant submitted his resignation, he tweeted from his X handle @HemantSorenJMM: “…haar manunga nahin (Will not accept defeat).”
Ahead of the resignation, ED made elaborate security arrangements to counter any backlash from Soren’s supporters. ED sleuths came to the CM’s residence at 1.20 pm in SUVs, less than an hour after Hemant met his father Shibu Soren to take his blessings and returned home. Just before his questioning began, Hemant lodged an FIR against ED officers Kapil Raj, Deovrat Jha, Anupam Kumar, Aman Patel and unknown others under sections 3 (1) (p) (r) (s) (u) of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for their alleged role in harassment of a tribal along with his community. Soren in his FIR alleged that ED officers leaked ‘misinformation’ to media aimed at maligning his image after their visit to his Delhi residence Shanti Niketan -- that has been taken on lease by the state government -- on January 29.
“This purported search (at Shanti Niketan) was without any information to me nor was my presence required,” he said in the FIR, clarifying that the BMW car taken away or the cash seized from the place did not belong to him. “These persons and unknown others who are not members of any Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe have instituted false malicious and vexatious criminal proceedings against me.”
While Hemant was being questioned, the governing coalition MLAs had assembled at the CM’s residence and stayed put there all through the day. Hectic parleys were held to come to a consensus on Hermant’s successor in the event of his resignation.
Champai said that he has been hearing about grievances of Sita Soren, the eldest daughter-in-law in the Soren family, through media reports. “Let her come to Ranchi and we can discuss it internally,” he said, assuring that internal differences are manageable.
Having experienced poaching bids in the past, JMM has kept the flock of MLAs together at CM’s residence and three small buses were kept ready, to ensure that every movement of the MLAs is managed in a group.
Hemant was questioned for the first round on January 20 by ED officials and directed to remain available once again between January 28 and 31. He went to New Delhi for some personal work on January 27 and it was the very next day that ED sleuths visited his Delhi residence where he managed to give them a slip and instead filed a letter expressing his readiness to be available for questioning on January 31.
While accusing the ED of digressing from the main case in questioning, he had rubbished the charges of owning the plot of land in which the ED is investigating the money laundering aspect.