Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren has agreed to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on January 20 at his official residence.

His party JMM has accused the federal agency of acting as the political front of the BJP and indicated “huge resentment” against it.

JMM central general secretary and spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya on Tuesday evening accused the ED of acting as a political front of the BJP-led Centre and threatened to take on the ED in a political manner.

“We have seen how the ED has been repeatedly creating a narrative in opposition (read non-BJP led) ruled states. In Jharkhand, our chief minister is summoned on August 14 knowing well the engagements of a constitutional head on Independence Day. In the New Year too, there have been repeated summons and the content of the summons is disclosed by sources of the ED and not given officially. It is clear that the ED is acting as a political front of the BJP and we might tackle the ED as a political entity,” said Bhattacharya.

“Even after raids, ED sources disclosed to the media about cash seizures but the official statement did not clarify the amount seized from respective persons. We would like the ED to maintain its integrity as there seems to be heavy resentment among tribals against such a ploy to disturb an elected government and this resentment can take a serious turn any moment,” informed Bhattacharya.

On Tuesday, Congress working president Bandhu Tirkey also indicated about the resentment among tribals on ED’s repeated summons to Soren.

Meanwhile, sources in the chief minister’s secretariat informed that the ED has been asked to come for questioning on January 20 afternoon.

“The CM would be busy with the ongoing Women’s FIH Hockey Olympic qualifiers 2024 at Ranchi till January 19 (the final day). This was the reason the ED has been asked for questioning at the CM house on January 20 afternoon,” said the source.

Incidentally, Soren heading a JMM-Congress-RJD alliance government in Jharkhand had agreed to interrogation in an alleged land scam case after the eighth summons and this message was sent through a special messenger to the ED office at Ranchi on Monday afternoon.

There were reports that the ED had written a letter to Soren on Saturday and given him five days (16-20 January) to record his statement and was asked to inform the time and place for recording his statement within two days.

A warning has also been given that if he does not come to record his statement, the ED will approach him for recording his statement.

The ED has asked the chief minister to treat the letter sent as a summons.

Incidentally, earlier this year Soren in reply to the seventh summon of the ED had criticised the federal agency terming its probe into the alleged money laundering charges over a land scam in Ranchi and the chief minister’s role in it as “baseless and biased”.

The letter also accused the ED of engaging in a media trial against him and hinted at taking legal recourse against the summons.

Soren has so far skipped attending any of the ED summons. He had filed petitions before the Supreme Court and the Jharkhand High Court seeking protection from ED’s actions, terming the summonses “unwarranted”. Both courts dismissed his petitions.

He had last attended ED summons in November 2022.

Former MP and JMM senior leader Hemlal Murmu accused the ED of harassing an elected state government in Jharkhand and informed that a bandh has been called in the Sahibganj district on Wednesday to protest repeated summons to Soren.