Supporters of the JMM, which is part of the ruling alliance government in Jharkhand along with the Congress-RJD enforced a “successful” bandh in Sahibganj district to protest repeated Enforcement Directorate (ED) summons to chief minister Hemant Soren who represents Barhait Assembly seat from the same district.

The nearly seven hours bandh called from 8am had the active presence of the JMM’s sole Lok Sabha parliamentarian Vijay Hansda (from Rajmahal constituency) and senior JMM leader and former MP Hemlal Murmu, The shops were shut down in almost the entire Sahibganj while supporters led by JMM Sahibganj district president Shahjahan Ansari blocked NH-80 at Green Hotel roundabout using bamboo poles at 8am.

“It was a successful bandh and there was no untoward incident from anywhere in the district. We carried out a torch rally on Tuesday evening and informed people about the harassment done by the ED at the behest of the BJP-led Centre against not only our chief minister but all the non-BJP-ruled states. Masses supported our bandh call spontaneously,” said Ansari.

He said that the bandh call was staged at the suggestion of the party’s central leadership and it was enforced between 8am and 3pm. However, during this period, emergency services and school buses etc. were allowed to operate.

Soren had on Monday agreed to interrogation in an alleged land scam case after eight summons and asked the ED to record his statement on January 20 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.

Earlier this year Soren in reply to the seventh summons 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 of the chief minister also accused the Enforcement Directorate 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 Jharkhand High Court seeking protection from the ED’s actions, terming the summonses “unwarranted”. Both courts dismissed his petitions.