New Delhi: Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate Kapil Sibal on Sunday alleged that the Enforcement Directorate was “fabricating evidence” against former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren to “implicate” him in the case he has been arrested in.
Soren was on Friday remanded to five days’ ED custody by a special PMLA court in Ranchi in connection with a money laundering case linked to an alleged land fraud.
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader was arrested on the night of January 31 after a seven-hour grilling by the ED in the case. He resigned as the chief minister before being arrested by the federal agency.
Sibal, who represented Soren in the Supreme Court seeking relief after his arrest, said, “What is happening in this country? There are no transactions, connection, telephone conversations or visits between Bhanu Pratap (tax department official arrested under ECIR by ED) and Hemant Soren. On what basis they (ED) have arrested Hemant Soren?”
“They did not take Pratap in custody earlier because they wanted to take Hemant (Soren) into custody and then take a production warrant and make him (Pratap) say that ‘Hemant is involved’,” he said at a press conference here.
Sibal said now Pratap would be taken into police custody and made to “implicate” Soren.
“You say that in April 2023 you knew Hemant was involved but you didn’t do any questioning from Bhanu Pratap about it, didn’t take him to police remand. Now they will take him in remand and implicate Hemant,” Sibal said.
He said the ED was making a “criminal” a star witness in the matter.
Asked if he was implying that the probe agency was creating evidence against Soren, Sibal said, “This is their job.”
“This is the kind of credibility that this organisation (ED) has, to try and implicate people, to destabilise governments and ensure sitting CMs are accused on the basis of fabricated evidence. This is the sad state of affairs in the country,” the former Union minister said.