Jharkhand Governor slams CM Soren; Section 144 imposed in some areas

Amid the communication gap between the Enforcement Directorate and Jharkhand CM, state Governor, CP Radhakrishnan on Tuesday said that he has no information about the CM and the attitude of the ruling party workers is not good.

"Just as no one has information about the Chief Minister, similarly I too do not have information. We are also waiting for the CM's response; the attitude of the ruling party workers is not good," he said.

Notably, the state administration has imposed Section 144 in a 100-metre radius of CM's residence and other places in Jharkhand.

Section 144 has been imposed at the Chief Minister's residence, Rajbhavan and ED's office.

"According to the information received, there is information about protests, demonstrations, rallies etc., by various organizations/parties. The possibility of such programs causing disruption in government work, disrupting traffic, creating law and order problems and disturbing public peace cannot be ruled out," the order said.

Meanwhile, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, in a letter to the Enforcement Directorate, said he will record his statement before the agency officials at 1 pm on Wednesday at his residence.

While accepting to record his statement, the Jharkhand chief minister alleged that questioning him at this time was more political and was meant to disrupt the functioning of his government.

"You are well aware that the Budget Session of the Legislative Assembly will be held between 2nd and 29th February 2024 and the undersigned will be pre-occupied with preparations for the same apart from other prior scheduled official engagements," the letter written by Soren to ED's Ranchi office said.

"In these circumstances, your insistence to record a further statement of the undersigned on or before 31 January 2024 reeks of malice and reveals your political agenda to disrupt the functioning of the State Government and prevent an elected representative of the people from discharging his official duties," Soren's letter to the ED said.

On Monday, Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials seized a luxury car belonging to Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren from his Delhi residence late on Monday, in connection with the ongoing probe into a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam.

The BJP had alleged that Soren has "gone missing."

"Today, the honour and respect of the people of Jharkhand were destroyed by our Chief Minister Hemant Soren ji, just by going missing," BJP parliamentarian from Jharkhand, Nishikant Dubey, wrote on his X timeline.

The Enforcement Directorate officials visited the residence of Soren in the national capital on Monday night for questioning him in connection with the alleged land scam case and said that the Jharkhand Chief Minister could not be located.

As per sources, the ED has issued fresh summons to Soren asked him to be available for questioning on January 29 or 31, or else the agency itself will go to him for questioning. This is the tenth summons issued to the Jharkhand Chief Minister by the ED.