NEW DELHI: The
Enforcement Directorate
(ED) on Thursday summoned
Congress
MP
Dhiraj Sahu
in a money laundering case against former
Jharkhand chief minister
Hemant
Soren
.
The ED wants to question and record Sahu’s statement in connection with his purported links with Soren and a BMW SUV that was seized by the central agency from the JMM leader’s house in Delhi a few days ago, sources told news agency PTI.
The agency also raided a premise in Kardarpur village in Gurugram on Wednesday on whose address this Haryana number plate bearing SUV was registered, the sources said.
Two locations in Kolkata were also searched in the same case on Wednesday.
The ED suspects this vehicle to be allegedly linked to
Sahu
through some “benami” way.
The summon comes a day after a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in New Delhi extended Hemant Soren’s ED remand custody for an additional five days.
Soren’s remand extension was part of an ongoing money laundering probe linked to an alleged land scam.
Congress leader Dhiraj Sahu made the headlines last year when the
income tax
department uncovered nearly Rs 340 from multiple factories of an Odisha-based distillery. The factories were reported to be linked to Sahu.
In what was termed the most substantial cash seizure in a single operation in the coastal state, over 50 bank employees used 40 machines for five days to count the pile of banknotes seized from factories in Balangir, Titlagarh and
Sambalpur
.
ED arrested Hemant Soren on the night of January 31 after a seven-hour interrogation as part of the money laundering case.
Meanwhile, Champai Soren, a veteran leader of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, was sworn in as the new chief minister of Jharkhand.
(With PTI input)
