Ranchi: The remand period of former CM Hemant Soren, arrested in the 8.5 acre land case of Badgai area, has been extended for three more days. On Monday, at 2.31 pm, the ED presented him in the court of the Special Judge of PMLA. In the court, Additional Solicitor General Anil Kumar appeared on behalf of ED and Advocate General Rajeev Ranjan appeared on behalf of Hemant Soren. After hearing both the sides, the court extended the remand period.
The ED told the court that evidence of WhatsApp chat between former Chief Minister Hemant Soren and architect Vinod Singh has been found. In the remand petition, the ED also mentioned that there was a plan to build a banquet hall on the disputed 8.5 acre land of Badgai area. ED requested to give police remand of four days to Hemant Soren for questioning. Hemant Soren’s advocate protested and told the court that Hemant Soren’s name is nowhere in the case related to revenue employee Bhanu Pratap Prasad or in whatever claim has been made by the ED. After hearing both the sides, the court gave three days’ remand to the ED to interrogate Hemant Soren. Earlier, the PMLA court had twice given remand of five days each to the ED for interrogating Hemant.
Vinod Singh had sent the map:
According to the petition, a plan was made to build a banquet hall on Bargain’s land. Architect Vinod Singh had made its map and sent it to Hemant Soren’s mobile. This information was received during the investigation of Vinod’s second mobile. The print of WhatsApp chat of his other mobile is in 201 pages. The print of the first mobile’s WhatsApp chat is in 539 pages.
It has been said in the petition that details of messages sent to Hemant and other officials have been found from the WhatsApp of architect Vinod Singh’s second mobile. Architect Vinod Singh had made a map of the proposed banquet hall and sent it to Hemant Soren’s mobile on April 6, 2021. In this map, space was earmarked for 10266 square feet lawn, 5545 square feet banquet, 10 rooms of 428 square feet, car parking and three drive-ways (8,12,15 feet) and other infrastructure. Party name X, X, X and place Lalu Khatal were written in it.
To check the authenticity of the details found from Vinod Singh’s mobile, a survey was conducted under Section 16 of PMLA on February 10, 2024. During the survey, Amin of Bargain area, revenue employee Bhanu Pratap Prasad, Vinod Singh were taken to the ground. Bhanu and Vinod identified 8.5 acres of land located in Bargain. For further investigation in this case, ED demanded from Hemant Soren the mobile on which Vinod had sent the messages. But he did not give the mobile. Not only this, Hemant Soren is not even signing the details related to this. It has been said in the production petition that the accused is trying to destroy the evidence related to this case, so that he can deny his relations with this land.
Efforts are being made since the ED issued summons for questioning in the land issue. During this effort, Rajkumar Pahan applied to the zonal officer that there was a possibility of him being evicted from his land. After this, the case for return of land was started in SAR Court on January 8, 2024. In just 18 days, this case was executed on January 29, 2024. On the same day the case was executed, the ED had raided the Chief Minister’s residence in Delhi.