Ranchi: The ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha accused the Enforcement Directorate of being biased against Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
Addressing a press conference, party spokesperson and general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya along with Rajmahal MP Vijay Hansda said that the probe agency after three months of action in the state released a press note and gave undue prominence to Pankaj Mishra who is the MLA representative of Chief Minister Hemant Soren at Barhet.
Bhattacharya said that though the ED in its release, which was released for the first time during its three-month action in Jharkhand, mentioned that as much as Rs 11.98 crore parked in 36 bank accounts was seized but did not mention which are the bank accounts of Mishra and how much was found in them.
Apart from this, the probe agency also did not mention details of accounts and the amount lying in it. Can the black money be deposited in the bank account Bhattacharya questioned? Later, he questioned the impartiality of the probe agency saying the ED started action in the Mnrega scam and then diverted to the mining scam and finally targeted the Chief Minister connecting his name with Pankaj Mishra in the contract scam. Hansda supported
Bhattacharya said the ED failed to say that Rs 2 crore has been recovered from the close relative of a BJP MLC and all those which claimed to have recovered from Mishra’s possession are already mentioned in his income tax return. He said during the JMM rule the level of corruption has reduced. He said that from 2015 to 2019 when Raghubar Das was chief minister there were as many as 212 leases in the Sahibganj district while the collection of revenue was Rs 80 crore.
After the JMM came into power, the number of leases reduced to 133 while the revenue increased. In 2020-2021 the revenue collection was Rs 108 crore while in 2021-22 it was Rs 110 crore. From 2015 to 19 seven to eight leases were granted to the BJP people, the MP said. The parliamentarian named BJP leader Sambhu Bhagat as a criminal saying he went to jail many times in various cases.