ED Attaches Rs Crore Worth Ranchi Land 'Belonging' to Hemant Soren

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached 8.86 acres of land in Ranchi allegedly owned by former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren as part of a money laundering investigation against him and his associates, the federal agency said on Thursday.

The ED had filed a charge sheet against the 48-year-old JMM leader and four others -- Bhanu Pratap Prasad, Raj Kumar Pahan, Hilariyas Kachhap and Binod Singh -- on March 30 before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court here.The court took cognisance of the prosecution complaint on Thursday, the ED said in a statement.The ED requested the court for confiscation of the 8.86-acre plot.

Soren was arrested in this case by the ED in January after he was questioned at his official residence in Ranchi. He resigned as the chief minister shortly before his arrest. He is in judicial custody and currently lodged in the Birsa Munda central jail in Ranchi's Hotwar. The money laundering investigation stems from multiple FIRs registered by Jharkhand Police in land "scam" cases against several people, including government officials.

The prime accused in the case is Prasad, a former Jharkhand revenue department official and custodian of government records, who is alleged to have "misused" his official position by providing assistance to several people including Soren in their activities linked to illegal occupation, acquisition and possession of proceeds of crime in the form of landed properties, the agency said in its statement."A racket of land mafia is active in Jharkhand which used to forge the land records in Ranchi," it claimed.