'Untraceable' Hemant Soren tells probe agency he'll appear before it on Jan 31: Report

A team of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday visited the residence of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren in Delhi in connection with a money laundering investigation. However, Soren was not at his house and left at midnight for an undisclosed location, ED sources told India Today TV. 

The ED team reached Soren's house at 7 am and was trying to find out his current location. The ED maintained that the searches at his Delhi home were done based on fresh inputs in the land scam. 

On January 27, the central agency issued a fresh communication, asking him to again join the investigation in the money laundering case next week, official sources told news agency PTI.

The agency had questioned the chief minister at his official residence in Ranchi on January 20. It issued a fresh summon as the questioning did not finish on that day.  

The ED had issued the fresh summons to Soren last week asking him to confirm his availability for questioning on either January 29 or January 31, the sources said. 

Soren had given consent for his questioning by the ED on January 31. Sources close to the Jharkhand Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said Soren would be available for the questioning session with the probe agency.

Soren had sent a communication to the agency but had not confirmed the date and time for questioning. He left Ranchi for Delhi on January 27. 

According to the agency, the investigation pertains to a "huge racket of illegal change of ownership of land by the mafia" in Jharkhand. The agency has been probing a trail of Rs 100 crore of "proceeds of crime" generated from illegal mining operations in the state.

The ED has, so far, arrested 14 people in the case, including 2011-batch IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan who served as the director of the state's Social Welfare Department and deputy commissioner of Ranchi.

Sources told India Today that Soren has been exploring his legal options, and he met an advocate in the national capital on Sunday. He is likely to move the court to seek protection "against coercive action".

Later, a team of seven ED officials reached Jharkhand Bhawan to enquire about Soren's whereabouts but staff there said the Chief Minister had not stayed there. According to sources, Soren left around 1 pm from his residence and returned around 8:30 pm on Sunday. 

A team of four ED officials, which was at Soren's residence, questioned the driver of the Chief Minister.

(With inputs from agencies, Munish Chandra Pandey, and Piyush Mishra)