On the eve of the ED's scheduled questioning of Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, several tribal organisations took out a protest march in Ranchi against the central agency on Friday.

Over a thousand tribals from different organisations marched with traditional musical instruments and bows and arrows and staged a protest near Raj Bhavan in Ranchi against the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) repeated summons to Soren.

Tribals marched from Morabadi to Raj Bhavan (a distance of over 3 km) and shouted slogans against the ED carrying Sarna flags.

“If the chief minister has done anything wrong then there is court and law but everybody knows how the ED is being used by the BJP-led Centre against non-BJP ruled states and we would not let them take any action against a tribal chief minister Hemant Soren. If they take any punitive steps against him then Jharkhand will burn and a massive stir would take place,” threatened Kendriya Sarna Samity president Ajay Tirkey.

Five tribal organisations Kendriya Sarna Samity, Rajhi Parha Sarna Prarthana Sabha, Adivasi Sena, 22 Parha Samity and Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikash Parishad and Hatia Visthapith Morcha (a non-tribal outfit fighting for rights of displaced people in Hatia in Ranchi) took part in the protest on Friday.

“We did not give any memorandum to the governor as it was a protest march and there is no point in giving our demands to the governor (C.P. Radhakrishnan) whose statements seem to be supporting the ED actions. We simply wanted to alert the ED and those thinking that they can do away by disturbing an elected pro-tribal state government,” added Tirkey.

The ED in its letter to the chief minister last week had asked for elaborate security arrangements to deal with the law and order situation during his questioning by the federal agency at the chief minister’s residential office in Ranchi on Saturday afternoon. The federal agency had also asked the chief secretary (L Khiangte) and DGP (Ajay Kumar Singh) of the state for necessary steps to ensure security for its officials.

The chief secretary is learnt to have held a meeting with senior police officials on Thursday in this connection.

JMM supporters had enforced a bandh in Sahibganj district on Wednesday in protest against the ED summoning Soren, JMM leaders have already hinted at massive resentment among tribals against the ED summons to Soren.

Soren had on Monday agreed to interrogation in an alleged land scam case on army land at Ranchi 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.