Hemant Soren's arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) occurred at 9.33 pm on Wednesday, mere moments after he formally submitted his resignation from the esteemed position of Jharkhand Chief Minister at Raj Bhavan in Ranchi.
Following this development, sources indicate that the ED plans to present Hemant in court on Thursday, with intentions to seek his custody for further investigation.
Earlier in the evening, Hemant had tendered his resignation as Jharkhand Chief Minister subsequent to undergoing over seven hours of questioning by the ED regarding an alleged land scam. The probe agency has been delving into what it describes as a "significant racket involving the illicit alteration of land ownership by criminal syndicates" within Jharkhand.
Meanwhile, Jharkhand minister and the ruling coalition's nominee for the Chief Ministerial position, Champai Soren, has submitted a formal claim to the Governor, seeking to establish a new government with the backing of 43 MLAs.
In a parallel development, Hemant Soren has taken legal action against officials from the Enforcement Directorate, invoking provisions under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. He alleges that certain ED personnel deliberately disseminated selective misinformation, asserting false claims such as the ownership of a blue BMW car seized during the investigation and the discovery of substantial amounts of unlawful cash purportedly linked to him.
Denying these allegations vehemently, Soren clarified that he neither owns the aforementioned BMW vehicle nor possesses any illicit cash, vehemently refuting the accusations levied against him by the probe agency officials.
