BJP MP Nishikant Dubey claimed Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren ‘escaped’ from Delhi by road with the help of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. Kejriwal, Dubey said, helped Hemant Soren to reach Varanasi and from there, Jharkhand minister Mithilesh Kumar helped Soren to reach Ranchi, the BJP MP claimed amid heightened drama over Hemant Soren. Neither Kejriwal nor Mithilesh Kumar reacted to the allegations. Hemant Soren will appear before the ED in his residence in Ranchi today at 1pm.
Hemant Soren’s road trip to Ranchi amid much drama: Here is what happened
1. On Monday (January 29), ED sent a team to Hemant Soren’s Delhi house as they had information that the Jharkhand CM was in Delhi. According to reports, he came to Delhi on January 26 for some legal consultations.
2. Hemant Soren flew to Delhi by a chartered plane and was supposed to take the same back home. An ED team was stationed at the airport.
3. On Monday morning, the ED team reached Hemant Soren’s Shanti Niketan residence in New Delhi but the Jharkhand chief minister was not there. The agency seized ₹36 lakh in cash, two BMW luxury cars registered in Haryana and some documents.
4. BJP leaders claimed Hemant Soren was missing for over 30 hours as he was neither in Delhi nor in Ranchi. Jharkhand BJP chief Babulal Marandi put out an advertisement announcing a cash prize of ₹11,000 looking for Soren’s whereabouts.
5. When he was not in Delhi and Ranchi, he was on the road travelling the distance of around 1,300km from Delhi to Ranchi which takes around 21 hours.
6. Hemant Soren reached Ranchi on Tuesday and held two meetings. His photos were shared by his party countering BJP’s ‘missing’ attack.
7. As he reached Ranchi, he paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi on his death anniversary. As he was asked where he was the past 24 hours, he said, “I reside in your hearts.”
8. The MLAs signed a letter of support without any name amid speculations that if Hemant Soren is arrested, his wife Kalpana Soren will be made the chief minister.
9. Nishikant Dubey claimed Hemant Soren’s brother and sister-in-law — both MLAs — objected to the proposal of making Kalpana the CM. Kalpana is not an MLA.
10. JMM said when Hemant Soren already informed the ED that he would speak to them on January 31, why the agency reached his Delhi residence on Monday.
Hemant Soren will be questioned in a money laundering case probe linked to an alleged land scam.
