SUMAN K SHRIVASTAVA
Ranchi, January 13: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) sent an eighth summons to Chief Minister Hemant Soren today and asked him to reply to its questions about the land scam in Ranchi by January 20.
According to sources, the central agency has asked the chief minister to record his statement on the land scam between January 16 and January 20.
The latest move was said to be a climb down on the ED part, as the agency, in its seventh summons issued on December 29, said that it was giving him the last opportunity to record his statement by January 7 under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, at the place, date and time mutually convenient to him and the ED sleuths.
In its seventh summons/letter, the ED clarified that failure to comply would lead to the presumption that he was intentionally evading the investigation and willfully disobeying summons.
Section 50 empowers the ED to summon any person during any investigation or proceedings under the PMLA.
Reason for summons
In its seventh letter/summons, the ED specified that it wants to record the CM’s response to the documents
seized from Ranchi district Revenue Sub-Inspector Bhanu Pratap Prasad and his properties. The agency has lodged a case in this regard for tampering and falsification of government records.
CM’s reply after seventh summons
In response to the seventh summons, Soren said the summonses are ‘illegal.’ He also accused the ED of making the media trial of the whole matter. In his reply, he also said that he had already given the details of the properties. He has also accused ED of trying to destabilise the government.
Notably, the ED issued a summons to CM on seven occasions, namely August 14, August 24, September 9, September 23, October 4, October 12, and December 29 necessitating his presence before the ED to record his statement so that the ED could obtain details regarding the properties under his possession.