Former Chief Minister and BJP State president Babulal Marandi has expressed apprehension of attack on Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers in Jharkhand like West Bengal. Sharing his fear on social media, Marandi said that on the lines of Bengal, the possibility of anti social element attacking ED officials in Jharkhand in future cannot be ruled out. According to sources, on January 5, some hired goons were prepared for this work and kept in the area behind the airport.
According to Babulal, it is known to everyone that earlier a conspiracy was being hatched from the jail itself to implicate ED officers in false cases, to give threats from anti-social elements and to groom some women. That plan failed because it was exposed. He also requested the Union Home Ministry to keep a close watch on such conspirators.
A team of ED officers was attacked by a mob in the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal on Friday when they arrived to search the house of a local Trinamool leader. The attackers were allegedly the supporters of the Trinamool leader. Terming the incident alarming, Governor C V Ananda Bose warned of “constitutional options” if the state government failed to take action.
The ED teams had arrived at the residence of Sheikh Sajahan in connection with the alleged scam in ration distribution. At Sheikh’s residence, they found the door locked from inside. The leader, ED claimed, refused to open the door. While the ED the ED sleuths, along with CRPF personnel, were trying to have the door opened, they faced a surprise attack. A mob of over 800 locals arrived with various objects like lathis, stones and bricks, and assaulted the officials.
The BJP leader observation gains importance as like Bengal, several politicians, IAS officials and power brokers are under the ED radar.
The Enforcement Directorate has summoned Media Advisor to Chief Minister Hemant Soren, Abhishek Prasad ‘Pintu’, Sahibganj Deputy Commissioner Ramniwas Yadav, Vinod Singh and former Katoria (Bihar) MLA Pappu Yadav for questioning in the illegal mining case. ED has summoned Abhishek Prasad Pintu to appear before the agency on January 16, DC Ramniwas Yadav on January 11 and Vinod Singh on January 15. They have been called for questioning at the zonal office in Ranchi.
Notably, the agency had conducted search operations at 12 locations in Jharkhand, West Bengal and Rajasthan in the early hours of January 3. The raids were conducted in connection with the illegal mining case worth more than Rs 1,000 crore. ED has said that during the searches, incriminating digital devices, documents/records and cash were recovered from various locations. ED issued a press release saying that a total of Rs 36.99 lakh, including Rs 7.55 lakh in cash, was recovered from the camp office of Sahibganj DC Ramniwas Yadav.
The agency has revealed that 19 cartridges of 9 mm bore, 2 cartridges of .380 mm and an empty shell of .45 pistol were recovered from the residential premises of DC. ED said that during the search, 30 benami bank accounts were also detected. They have been frozen. After the action, it was told by ED that illegal mining worth Rs 1,250 crore was actually done in Jharkhand.
Apart from these, Chief Minister Hemant Soren too is on ED radar though the CM has skipped seven summons issued to him.
