New Delhi/Ranchi: The Enforcement Directorate on Friday, July 8 conducted raids at about 18 locations in Jharkhand as part of a money laundering investigation against Pankaj Mishra, the political representative of Chief Minister Hemant Soren, and some others, officials said.The searches are being conducted in Sahibganj district and its towns like Berhait and Rajmahal. “The ED case is based on an FIR registered by Jharkhand police against Mishra. Investigations are on,” an ED official said. Sources added that this was a separate case and the raids were not in connection to the money laundering case that the ED had registered against state Mining Secretary Pooja Singhal.About 18 locations are being searched and the action is being undertaken under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.According to the Indian Express, the fresh case stems from a July 2020 complaint made by a toll tax contractor with the Badharwa police station in Sahibganj. The complaint levelled accusations of assault on the directions of Mishra and a minister in the Soren government.The complaint further alleged that the clash was over a tender for toll collection from vehicles entering Bhadarwa Nagar panchayat. The complainant alleged that the minister’s brother was also competing for the tender and had tried to sabotage the bid by propping a dummy company that bid exorbitantly to bag the contract, only to dishonour the bid later.Soren continues to reel under a deluge of complaints and cases filed against him and his aides. Soren is facing allegations of corruption for allotting a mining lease to himself and a plot of land to his wife. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has already issued a notice to Soren’s brother and state MLA Basant Soren in the mining lease issue.Also read: BJP Accuses Jharkhand CM of Allotting Land to Wife, Associates(With PTI inputs)
