Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate Kapil Sibal on Sunday alleged that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) 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 in 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.

He resigned as chief minister before being arrested by the federal agency.

Sibal, who represented Soren in the Supreme Court to seek 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 media conference
in Delhi.

Sibal said now Pratap would be taken into police custody and made to “implicate” Soren. PTI