Responding to the Hemant Soren case of not obeying summons by the Enforcement Directorate, Jharkhand High Court heard it on Saturday. 

The court directed Soren who had sought time to reply to the ED’s case, to file its affidavit explaining why he did not abide by its summons and fixed July 12 as the date of the next hearing. 

Notably, on February 22, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) registered another case against him for disobeying summons issued by the investigating agency. 

Also, ED had served 10 summons to Soren, out of which he turned up only twice before the agency for questioning. 

ED has filed complaint number 3952/2024 at the Chief Judicial Magistrate's court, which is to be heard next on February 27 after a preliminary hearing on February 12.

ED in its complaint has stated that it had issued 10 summons to Hemant Soren in the money laundering case linked to the land scam, out of which he appeared before the ED only twice. 

According to the agency, Soren had disregarded the ED summons. The complaint has been filed under Section 63 of PMLA and Section 174 of IPC against Soren for disobeying the summons. 

Meanwhile, ED sources also informed that the 8.5 acres of land at Bargain in Ranchi, for which Hemant Soren was arrested, will be seized by the investigation agency. 

Interestingly, WhatsApp chats which surfaced during the scrutiny of the two mobile phones of Hemant Soren’s aide Binod Kumar Singh, revealed that the 8.5 acres of land was being illegally acquired by Soren to construct a banquet hall. 

In a 13-page remand note submitted before the Special PMLA Court in Ranchi, ED said that a plan/map of the proposed banquet was shared by Binod Singh to Hemant Soren on April 06, 2021, on his mobile phone.