ED has tightened the noose in Jharkhand
After the crackdown on mining and land scam, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is super active in Jharkhand, has now initiated action in the liquor and sand scam, leaving politicians and bureaucratic officers in the state worried.
The increasing scope of investigation in different cases can increase the problems of Chief Minister Hemant Soren, his cabinet members, and about half a dozen IAS and state service officers in the state. The ED has also tightened the noose on power brokers and many businessmen.
Due to ED’s investigation and action, more than 20 people including two IAS officers of the state Pooja Singhal and Chhavi Ranjan, former Chief Engineer of Rural Development Department Birendra Ram, 8-9 businessmen Vishnu Agarwal, Amit Agarwal, Dilip Ghosh, Yogendra Tiwari, Sunil Yadav, Tinkle Bhagat. Bhagwan Bhagat, Krishna Shah, two chartered accountants Suman Kumar and Neeraj Mittal and two power brokers Pankaj Mishra and Prem Prakash and Yogendra Tiwari have been sent to jail.
Last Thursday, ED arrested the state’s businessman Yogendra Tiwari, considered the kingpin of the liquor scam. Before this, he was interrogated at length on three different dates.
Now the agency has taken him on remand for eight days and started a detailed interrogation on Saturday. While presenting him in court after his arrest, the agency claimed that Yogendra Tiwari was involved in the illegal business of liquor as well as land and sand, and he had the protection of many officers and politicians.
On March 31, the ED registered ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report) against Yogendra Tiwari on the basis of four FIRs already registered in different police stations of the Deoghar district. After this, on August 23, a simultaneous raid was conducted at 34 locations in the state and several documents and evidences were recovered.
One of these locations was the residence of state Finance Minister Dr. Rameshwar Oraon and his son Rohit Oraon. ED had also recovered Rs.30 lakh in cash from here. After this raid, the scope of the investigation increased further. ED has now added 15 more FIRs to the same ECIR.
More than 20 people named in these FIRs have directly come under the scanner of ED. It is expected that during the interrogations of the accused, more names will emerge.
It is alleged that Yogendra Tiwari established a monopoly in the liquor business in the state in the year 2021-22. He had obtained liquor contracts by forming different firms in the name of his employees and the complete control of these firms was in the hands of Yogendra Tiwari.
The liquor scam that has taken place in Jharkhand has its links with Chhattisgarh. In fact, the Jharkhand government had implemented a new policy of excise i.e. liquor sale in the year 2021-22 and to implement it, it had signed an agreement with Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited (CSMCL) and appointed it as a consultant.
On the advice of this consultant company, on the lines of Chhattisgarh, the Jharkhand government took over the retail sale of liquor and entrusted the responsibility of running the shops to the placement agencies. This work was carried out under the supervision of Arun Pati Tripathi, the then MD of Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited, and his partner Siddharth Singhania.
Now the investigation into his role in Jharkhand’s liquor scam will be intensified. The Chhattisgarh unit of ED has also summoned two IAS officers of Jharkhand, Vinay Kumar Choubey and Karan Satyarthi, in April in connection with the case.
There is a possibility that the Jharkhand unit of ED may also issue notice to these two officers now. As Vinay Choubey is also the secretary to Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, the heat of investigation may finally reach the CM directly or indirectly.
Before this, ED had even interrogated Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren in the mining scam worth Rs.1000 crore. He has also been summoned five times in the investigation of land scam. Soren did not appear on any of these summons and filed a petition against the ED first in the Supreme Court and then in the High Court.
However, he has not yet received any relief from the court. It is possible that ED may take further action against him in this case. Hemant Soren himself is apprehensive about this and has said that a conspiracy has been hatched to send him to jail at the behest of the BJP government at the Centre.
Last year, the ED had registered an FIR against Alamgir Alam, a senior minister from the Congress in the Soren cabinet, in a dispute related to a tender in Barharwa in Sahibganj district. The investigation into this may also proceed further.
ED has already collected evidence of corruption worth about Rs.200 crore against senior IAS Rajeev Arun Ekka, who was the Principal Secretary to CM Soren. The agency has shared a report on this evidence and details with the state government and the Anti-Corruption Bureau and has asked them to register an FIR against him.
The super-active mode of ED has left politicians and top bureaucratic officers in the state worried.
[With Inputs from IANS]
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