Hemant Soren files FIR against ED officials for raids at Delhi residence

Ranchi: Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Wednesday lodged a complaint against the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials who conducted raids at his residence in New Delhi on January 29 in connection with a money laundering probe against him.

Soren, who comes from the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community, wrote to the Incharge of the SC/ST police station here claiming ED officials Kapil Raj, Deovrat Jha, Anupam Kumar, Aman Patel and others of Ranchi Zonal Office conducted search operations in New Delhi "to harass and malign" him and his entire community.

In the complaint, he mentioned that he visited New Delhi on January 27 and 28 and stayed at Shanti Niketan, which is taken on lease by the state of Jharkhand for residential and office use. "On 29 January, I came to know that ED officials along with others had allegedly searched that premises. This purported search was conducted without any information to me."

Soren further said that the officials "leaked selective misinformation" that a blue BMW car and a huge sum of illicit cash belonging to him were seized from the premises. He claimed that the BMW car seized by the probe agency did not belong to him and also denied possessing illicit cash.

"I am not the owner of the car of BMW which the abovenamed persons claim to have seized. I do not own any illicit cash. The abovenamed persons and unknown others who are not members of any Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe have done the aforesaid acts intentionally to humiliate me in public," Soren said in his complaint.

Sources said that Soren filed the complaint hours before a team of ED sleuths reached his residence in Ranchi to question him in connection with the money laundering probe.