RANCHI: Having accused the BJP-led government at the Centre of misusing institutions to harass the opposition and settle political scores, the leaders of political parties in Jharkhand are treading the subject carefully.
The ruling JMM is on the razor sharp edge with CM Hemant Soren being questioned by the Election Commission (EC) in the office-of-profit case along with the Jharkhand HC pulling up the government on the matter, apart from the enforcement directorate (ED) deciding to expand its scope of investigations to include mining. The party is tight-lipped on the ED actions which were earlier described by the CM as “geedar bhabki and misuse of power by the Centre”.
Meanwhile, the Congress has asked if BJP MP from Godda, Nishikant Dubey, is the spokesperson for ED in Jharkhand as he is narrating ED actions even beforehand.
The central agency is also playing a different role here as even after conducting raids and arresting at least two high-profile persons and interrogating them for over a week at its zonal office, no statement has been issued.
On Saturday, when the agency updated its website with actions taken in different cases across the country, details about actions in Jharkhand were missing. Even its Twitter handle, which is abuzz with news updates, remained silent.
On May 11, when Singhal was arrested by ED in Ranchi, its Twitter handle had the details of two prosecution complaint cases filed in a special court in Vishakhapatnam related to multi-level marketing fraud and multi-crore banking fraud in Andhra Pradesh but nothing on Singhal. Of the four cases tweeted on Friday, two are of West Bengal and one each of Madhya Pradesh (also linked to Goa) and Uttar Pradesh.
However, the agency is leaking information selectively based on which reports are published in media outlets.
For Jharkhand, the arrest of serving IAS officer, Pooja Singhal, then state mines secretary who was later suspended after her arrest is a first. Yet, the ED thought it best not to make any statement. Calls, emails and messages to ED officials by TOI remained unanswered till the time of filing this report.
Jharkhand Congress spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan Prasad smells a political agenda behind the ED action. Talking to TOI he said at a time when the ED officials are tight-lipped, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey has all the information and he is the first person to tweet about the ED activities. “The ED should clarify if it has tasked Dubey to be the spokesperson and if not, action should be taken against him,” Prasad said.
Prasad reminded that long before the ED counsel informed the Jharkhand high court on obtaining documents about shell companies or irregularities in the allocation of mines, the BJP leaders had been linking the ED raids with mining.
“We would like to know if the ED is working on a scripted story in Jharkhand,” he asked, calling upon the officials of the central agency to release a statement on their actions and findings.
