Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren questioned by ED for over 9 hours, calls probe a conspiracy

“The agency should level allegations only after a detailed investigation into the matter,” he said.

The ED has said it has “identified” proceeds of crime relating to illegal stone mining in the state to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore till now.

The ED on Thursday questioned Soren for over nine-and-half-hours — he entered the ED’s Ranchi office around noon and came out around 9.40 pm.

Addressing reporters in the morning before leaving for the ED office, Soren had claimed he was a “victim of conspiracy” by the Opposition.

In his letter to ED, the JMM leader wrote that in order to “evade royalty of Rs 1,000 crore in two years”, 33 lakh trucks, or more than 20,000 train rakes, would be needed to transport “8 crore metric tonnes of stone”, which he alluded was impossible. He wrote that 4,500 trucks would be required every day for two years to transport 8 crore metric tonnes of illegally mined stone, whereas Sahibganj has only about 800 registered trucks.

“It appears that you have not identified the loading of even a single rake without requisite challan, as you have not taken action against any railway officer. You claim that approximately 6,500 rakes loaded stone in Sahibganj district during the past two years. Even if all these 6,500 rakes loaded only illegally mined stone, which cannot be the case, they would not be sufficient to transport the total quantity of 8 crore MT of illegally mined stone which would fetch royalty of Rs 1,000 crore,” Soren wrote.

Addressing the media earlier, Soren had said: “This is beyond my understanding how the figure of Rs 1,000 crore illegal mining was reached. The allegations are not possible at all. I am in a constitutional post, and the way the summons are being issued, it seems politicians will leave the country…. This is a conspiracy.”

In its prosecution complaint filed in a special court in Ranchi, the ED had mentioned that it had recovered “two signed cheques and 31 blank cheques, all pertaining to Hemant Soren held with Bank of India” from the possession of Soren’s representative Pankaj Mishra. Mishra has been arrested.

The ED is likely to question Soren on this. According to ED sources, Mishra, while in judicial custody, was shifted to Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences in Ranchi due to health complications. From hospital, he allegedly made calls to a “few persons in authority”, which the ED is probing.