In a recent turnaround, connections have surfaced between Hemant Soren, former Chief Minister of Jharkhand, and Dhiraj Sahu, a Rajya Sabha MP from Congress. A vehicle, recovered from Soren's residence, is found to be registered to a firm owned by Sahu in Manesar. Consequently, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Sahu for inquiries.
Back in December last year, the Income Tax Department had conducted raids on Sahu’s properties in Jharkhand, where a staggering sum of 351 crore INR in cash was discovered alongside undisclosed assets. During the 10-day-long raid, about 40 counting machines were deployed to manage the cash seized.
Former Chief Minister Hemant Soren is caught up in allegations of a land scam and is facing action by the ED on money laundering charges. Soren was arrested last week and is under interrogation by ED.
Despite the charges, Soren has denounced the allegations as baseless and has challenged his arrest in the High Court. The JMM leader was remanded to ED custody for five days by a special PMLA court in Ranchi on February 2nd.
The ED previously arrested Bhanu Prasad Pratap, the then Revenue Inspector, whose role in the case is under scrutiny with significant revelations. ED sources indicate that a trove of documents, uncovering details of the land scam, was found during the raid on Prasad's premises.
The investigation revealed that once Prasad got hold of the original registers, his role in the scheme became evident. He allegedly kept the landowners' records at his home. Prasad had personally inspected the properties, and handwritten notes regarding the assets were recovered from his mobile phone.
