Amid summons to Hemant Soren, his party, alliance MLAs asked to stay in Ranchi

All the legislators of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led ruling alliance have been asked to stay put in Ranchi and attend a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the state's current political situation amid fears that Chief Minister Hemant Soren could be arrested in an alleged land fraud case, a JMM leader told news agency PTI.

The JMM, the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) are part of the ruling alliance in Jharkhand.

The meeting, which is proposed to be held at the Chief Minister's house, has been called to deliberate on a strategy over the current political scenario and the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) proposed questioning of Chief Minister Hemant Soren in the land case on Wednesday, JMM general secretary and spokesperson Vinod Kumar Singh said.

"They will meet on Tuesday to discuss the future course of action," he said.

Soren, in an email sent to the ED, said he agreed to record his statement in connection with an alleged land scam at his official residence in Ranchi on January 31 at 1 pm.

When asked if Soren had returned to Ranchi, Singh did not answer.

The JMM legislators had remained at Soren's official residence in Delhi till late night on Monday after an ED team visited there to question him in connection with a money laundering investigation in an alleged land fraud case.

The ED had questioned Soren at his official residence in Ranchi on January 20 in the case, and issued a tenth summons to him asking him to confirm his availability for questioning on either January 29 or January 31. So far, Soren has skipped ED summons nine times.

Official sources claimed that Soren was "missing" and could not be contacted by the probe agency.

Soren, who had left for Delhi from Ranchi on January 27 night, had sent an email to the agency in which he agreed to a fresh round of questioning by the ED investigators on January 31 at his Ranchi residence around 1 pm, they said.

The JMM said the ED’s action against Soren was “unconstitutional”.

“The Chief Minister went to Delhi for some personal work and he will be back. But, the ED action is uncalled for and unconstitutional. It seems that the move is politically motivated,” alleged JMM general secretary and spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya.

“Soren has nothing to do with the case,” he claimed.

(with inputs from PTI)