Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Champai Soren on Wednesday resigned as the state’s chief minister, barely 152 days after taking oath. The party’s executive president Hemant Soren staked claim to form the new government, and is set to return as the chief minister, ANI reported.
The Jharkhand High Court on June 28 granted bail to Hemant Soren in a money-laundering case linked to an alleged land scam, noting that there was “no reason to believe” that he was guilty of the alleged offence. Subsequently, he was released from the Birsa Munda Jail in Ranchi.
He had been in jail since January 31, when he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the case.
Earlier on Wednesday, Hemant Soren was elected as the leader of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s legislature party.
Later in the day, Champai Soren tendered his resignation from the chief minister’s post to Jharkhand Governor CP Radhakrishnan, ANI reported.
After resigning, Champai Soren told reporters that he had been given the responsibility of the post when the leadership had changed, NDTV reported. “You know the sequence of events,” he said. “After Hemant Soren came back, we [the coalition] picked him as our leader and I have resigned. I am following the decision taken by the coalition.”
Hemant Soren had resigned as the chief minister shortly before being arrested, after which Champai Soren took over the post.
In its case against Hemant Soren, the Enforcement Directorate claimed that a “racket of land mafia” in Jharkhand was involved in tampering with official land records in Ranchi and Kolkata.
Some of the land acquired through the forgery had illegally come into Hemant Soren’s possession, the central agency alleged.
The chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate on March 30 named Hemant Soren, among others, as the accused persons in the alleged land scam. The central agency also attached 8.86 acres of land allegedly owned by him.
According to the Enforcement Directorate, Hemant Soren acquired the land located at Baragain Anchal at Bariyatu Road in Ranchi through the proceeds of crime stemming from money-laundering. The central agency accused him of misusing his power and falsifying evidence in the case after he was issued the first summons for questioning on August 7.
The former chief minister, however, denied the allegations.
The High Court, while granting Hemant Soren on June 28, said that there was no evidence directly linking him to the possession of the land parcel in question.
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