Jharkhand CM ‘untraceable’ as ED reaches his Delhi house

NEW DELHI: In an unprecedented development, Enforcement Directorate on Monday roped in Delhi Police to look for Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren after they did not find him at his Delhi residence.
The ED team had reached Soren's residence in connection with its probe into a case of alleged money laundering of hundreds of crores.
Sources in ED said the investigators, who were told that Soren had left moments before they reached his residence, sounded an alert when they found the phones of the CM and his personal security officers switched off.

The agency also asked for pickets at the capital's borders after they got to know that Soren had cancelled the chartered flight he was scheduled to take for Ranchi at 6pm. Police in neighbouring states were asked to look for him, leading to arguably the first-ever manhunt for a CM.
ED, which questioned Soren in Ranchi earlier this month after he had avoided eight summonses, had written to him saying it wanted him to answer a few more questions either on Monday or Wednesday. The probe team decided to question him on Monday in the capital after getting to know that he was in the city for legal consultations.

Soren’s party, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, issued a statement to deny that he was “absconding” and said Soren had agreed to meet the probe team on Wednesday even as it called the investigation a “political witch hunt”.
Later in the evening, Soren sent an email to the agency saying he was willing for a session with the investigators at 1pm on Jan 31 at his official residence in Ranchi. He called the ED’s search for him part of a “motivated political agenda” and summons as completely “vexatious and in colourable exercise of powers given by the statute”.

A security alert has been placed in Ranchi and other parts of Jharkhand in view of possible deterioration in law and order in the state even as ED is on the lookout for the CM. Soren had arrived in Delhi on Saturday possibly for “legal consultations” in view of ED’s insistence that he answer all the questions related to alleged money laundering.
Sources said the Jharkhand CM has no other option but to submit before the agency as he had lost all his appeals before the Supreme Court and the Jharkhand High Court against ED summonses.
After disregarding eight summonses from ED, Soren recorded his statement on January 20 at his residence in Ranchi. He was served a fresh summons, with ED saying the session could be scheduled on January 29 or 31.

During his questioning on January 20, a large crowd of supporters gathered outside his Ranchi residence despite the huge presence of state police. JMM had then claimed that around 500 CRPF personnel had tried to “enter the CM’s residence without permission” to allegedly provoke party workers to attack and later accuse the state of failure of law and order.
ED sources said they were keen to avoid a repeat of the incident and thought of questioning him in Delhi. Several close aides of Soren have already been arrested, including two IAS officers, his aide Prem Prakash and his constituency representative Pankaj Mishra. Sources said they want to question Soren in the light of statements of other accused who allegedly collected ‘proceeds of crime’ from mining and land scams. Last year, ED had seized/attached assets worth more than Rs 50 crore after multiple searches at the premises of Soren’s close associates.