NEW DELHI :
THE Enforcement Directorate has seized Rs 36 lakh, a BMW SUV and
some “incriminating” documents after it searched the Delhi house of
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, official sources said on Tuesday.
The federal agency searched the 5/1 Shanti Niketan building of the
JMM leader in south Delhi on Monday and camped there for almost 13
hours in order to question him in a money laundering case linked to an
alleged land deal case of Jharkhand.
The sources said the ED teams seized about Rs 36 lakh in cash, a
Haryana registered BMW SUV under a name that the ED considers “benami” and some“incriminating” documents during
the day-long operation.
Soren, 48, who reached
Ranchi on Tuesday, has
informed the ED that he is
ready to depose before them
on Wednesday at his residence in the state capital
around 1 pm.
A party official
said in Ranchi that all the legislators of the Jharkhand
Mukti Morcha-led ruling
alliance in Jharkhand have
been asked not to leave the
state capital and to attend a
meeting on Tuesday to discuss the current political situation in the state.
The investigation pertains
to a “huge racket of illegal
change of ownership of land
by the mafia” in Jharkhand,
according to the central
probe agency.
The ED has so far arrested
14 people in the case, including 2011-batch IAS officer
Chhavi Ranjan who served
as the director of the state’s
Social Welfare Department
and deputy commissioner of
Ranchi.
An employee of the
Jharkhand land revenue
department, Bhanu Prasad
Prasad, was also arrested by
the agency in the case.