ED had summoned asking him to appear before it on Thursday. But Sahibgunj Dy.SP Rajendra Dubey preferred to come face-to-face with Enforcement Directorate on Friday.

“He ( Pandey)is being interrogated”, says a source in the ED office, Ranchi.

Why is Dy.SP Rajendra Dubey being interrogated by ED sleuths? The answer is linked with evidence and statements gathered by ED, showing this.

Sahebgunj-based complainant Vijay Hansda was an important witness in the illegal mining and money laundering case against CM Hemant Soren’s MLA representative Pankaj Mishra and others.

Sahebgunj DY.SP Rajendra Dubey had claimed to have a handwritten letter of Vijay Hansda saying he had withdrawn his complaint of illegal mining against Pankaj Mishra and others. If this was true the entire case investigated by the ED and charge sheet submitted by it against the accused Mishra and others will fall flat giving a clean chit to all accused in this case.

But Vijay Hansda had lodged an FIR at SC-ST police station in Sahebgunj saying the “handwritten” letter written by him was “ falsely” taken by the police and he stands by his earlier complaint. He had made a similar submission in the court there.

Against this backdrop, ED suspects that Dy. SP Rajendra Dubey might have been used by the power that be as a medium to save the accused Pankaj Mishra and others.

There is another person Pasuram Yadav involved in this case. Reports claim that Yadav was responsible for persuading Vijay Hansda inside jail to submit before the court his stand against Pankaj Mishra. ED has issued summon to him too.

The outcome of the interrogation of Dy. SP Rajendra Pandey is not known. “ The interrogation is still going on”, said a source in the ED’s regional office in Ranchi, adding: “ Dy.SP is turning out to be a hard nut to break.”