Soren ‘untraced’ as ED team visits house over land fraud case

A team of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday arrived at the official residence of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren in connection with a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam.

However, Soren was not at his house and left at midnight for an undisclosed location, ED sources told India Today TV.

The ED team reached Soren’s house at 7 am and was trying to find out his current location, according to ED sources. The ED maintained that the searches were done at his Delhi home were done based on fresh inputs in the land scam.

On January 27, the ED issued a fresh communication, which is the tenth summons to Soren, asking him to again join the investigation in the money laundering case next week, official sources told news agency PTI.

Soren, who has skipped the ED summons nine times, has been asked to confirm his availability for questioning on either January 29 or 31, they said. The ED said it would reach out to him if Soren did not turn up for questioning either on January 29 or January 31.

Soren had given consent for his questioning by the ED on January 31. Sources close to the Jharkhand Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said Soren would be available for the questioning session with the probe agency.