The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has requested the Jharkhand High Court to get the CBI investigated into the allegations made by former Chief Minister Hemant Soren that a section of ED officers violated the provisions of the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) Act. The provisions have been violated.
Soren had lodged a complaint with the police in Ranchi that in January, the ED had raided his New Delhi residence ‘‘to harass and defame him and his entire community’’ A search operation was conducted.
ED has requested a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation in a criminal writ petition. The petition claims that Soren has deliberately sought criminal prosecution against ED officials to obstruct the investigation initiated against him in the land scam.
ED had arrested Soren, the working president of the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) on January 31 in a money laundering case related to the land scam. He had resigned from the post of Chief Minister shortly before his arrest.
The agency, in its petition before the High Court, has mentioned that Soren had filed an FIR against ED officials just hours before his arrest. An ED team had searched Soren’s residence in Delhi in January in connection with the investigation into a money laundering case related to an alleged land deal in Jharkhand and stayed there for about 13 hours to interrogate him. style="text-align: justify;">The agency had claimed to have seized Rs 36 lakh, an SUV (car) and some prosecutable documents during the search. ED lawyer Amit Kumar Das told ‘PTI-Bhasha’ Told that the SC/ST case against ED officials is now being investigated by the state police. Das said that officials of the central agency have expressed apprehension about the impartiality of the investigation conducted by the police and hence have requested the investigation to be conducted by the CBI.
ED had registered the case on March 19. On March 21, the High Court had stayed the action on the notice issued by the police against ED officials. The police had asked the accused officers to appear at the police station and present their side in this regard.
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