PMLA case: ED sends 4th summon to Hemant Soren to join probe

New Delhi, Sep 17 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has sent a fresh summon to Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren to join the probe into a money laundering case pertaining to a land grabbing matter on September 23, an official said on Sunday.

This was the fourth summon issued to Soren. Last time, he was asked to appear on September 9. 

Soren had also moved to the apex court after he received the fresh summon.

Last year, Soren was questioned in connection with the illegal mining case. 

He was questioned for around 10 hours along with his wife at ED's Ranchi-based office.

In the present case, the ED has arrested 13 people, including an IAS officer.

On July 8, a raid was conducted at the residence of Chief Minister's legislator representative Pankaj Mishra. 

The ED found a checkbook linked to Chief Minister Hemant Soren's bank account. 

Following this, their names were connected to this case. Mishra was then placed under arrest. 

The surprising aspect which emerged that these accused used documents from 1932 to wrongfully seize people's lands and would tell the victims that their lands had already been sold by their fathers or grandfathers. 

The accused deceitfully took possession of the lands given on lease to the army and also fraudulently sold them elsewhere.

The agency seized a large number of fake deeds from their possession. 

In this case, there are allegations of aiding IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan, and as a result, the ED later arrested her. 

This case is from Jharkhand, but its ramifications extend to Bihar and Kolkata.

The sources said that the accused used to occupy land by referring to pre-Independence documents and creating fake documents from 1932. 

They claimed to have owned the land since the time when the entire region was West Bengal, including parts of Bihar and Jharkhand, encompassing both private and government lands.

When the ED conducted a forensic examination of the seized documents, it was revealed that all the documents were forged. 

The districts' names that did not exist before independence were mentioned along with pre-Independence documents, and the PIN code from the 1970s was used in old documents. 

After uncovering these small discrepancies, the accused were arrested.