Police search Soren house in Delhi, he waits in Bengal

Before slipping out of the Capital, Soren sent his resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with the request that it be accepted only if the High Court turns down his plea. The PMO, however, maintained that no resignation had been received from Soren.

Sources said Soren was camping at a place around 90 km north-west of Kolkata, roughly a three-and-half-hour drive from Jamtara on the West Bengal-Jharkhand border. He’s likely to surrender at Jamtara if he fails to get relief from the High Court. It was a Jamtara court which had issued the arrest warrant in the 1975 Chirrudih massacre case.

Soren is keen on giving himself up on his home turf because he expects the incident to generate sympathy among his tribal votebank. With the Assembly elections due soon, he hopes to translate this sympathy into votes for the JMM-Congress combine. Jamtara, a segment of Soren’s Dumka Lok Sabha constituency, fetched him maximum votes.

In New Delhi today, a Jharkhand police party, looking for Soren, searched his North Avenue residence with the assistance of the local police. The police also questioned his staff. Unable to find him, the police pasted a photocopy of the non-bailable warrant issued against him outside his house. As soon as the police left, Soren’s supporters tore off the warrant.

Ranchi SP Niraj Sinha, who led the Jharkhand police party, said, ‘‘We have recorded the statements of two members of Soren’s staff. We will inform the court of all the developments and await its direction. For now, the procedure has been completed.’’ The police party is likely to return to Jharkhand tomorrow.

Angry over the police action, JMM MP Sunil Mahato said it was ‘‘politically motivated.’’ He said Soren was not absconding but was ‘‘among the people’’ and interacting with them.

In Ranchi, the Jharkhand Congress issued a statement in support of Soren: ‘‘The JPCC is solidly behind the JMM at a time when its chief is facing a political conspiracy to malign him by digging up a 29-year-old case.’’

The Congress has obviously set its eyes on potential electoral gains in Jharkhand while opting to go along with Soren. Though in normal circumstances it would have been highly risky for the party to defend a man in a case involving massacre of Muslims, the Congress leadership believes that Muslims, irrespective of the case, will not abandon it for the Hindutva-driven BJP.

The Soren issue again rocked Parliament today and Rajya Sabha had to be adjourned for the day without transacting any business after the Opposition stalled proceedings.

Noisy scenes were witnessed after Jamuna Devi Barupal of the Congress was persuaded by her party colleagues to leave the House to avoid asking a question related to coal and mines, Soren’s ministry, during question hour.

Senior NDA leaders met at the residence of Leader of Opposition L K Advani this evening and decided to paralyse both Houses tomorrow to put the Government in the dock on the issue. They will get this decision endorsed by the general body of NDA MPs who are meeting tomorrow morning.