Jharkhand governor C.P. Radhakrishnan on Thursday denied allegations that the Raj Bhavan was involved in former chief minister Hemant Soren’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case linked to an alleged land fraud.

Soren was arrested after a seven-hour grilling by the federal agency sleuths on
January 31.

“There is no question of misuse of Raj Bhavan. Every democratic norm has been very strictly followed by us...The former chief minister himself has agreed in his letter that he resigned before being taken into the ED custody,” he added.

“I never know who the ED people are... I don’t know their names or faces... I saw them for a few minutes... If you want me to identify, I will not recognise them,” Radhakrishnan told the media on Thursday.

Radhakrishnan said Raj Bhavan did not ask Soren to resign as chief minister, but it was the CMO which said he was going to resign.

“It was the ED’s phone to our principal secretary saying ‘we have taken the custody of your CM and he is requesting us to complete his constitutional obligations of resigning. So, we are coming to Raj Bhavan so that he can resign.’ This was the first message we got.

“The second message came from the chief secretary saying he is the chief minister... then my principal secretary said he is the chief minister till he resigns.... The CMO
also informed me that he is going to resign... I kept waiting for three hours,” the governor said.

Radhakrishnan added that then the chief secretary dialled his principal secretary saying the chief minister cannot come alone with the ED people and some of the senior ministers should be allowed to come along with him.

“I told him three of the most senior ministers can accompany,” he added.

While taking part in the confidence motion moved by his successor Champai Soren in the Assembly on February 5, the JMM executive president had alleged that the Raj Bhavan was instrumental in his arrest after a “conspiracy” was hatched by the Centre.

On the delay in inviting Champai Soren to form the government, the governor said: “The delay was on account of legal advice in an extraordinary situation… we called them after 26 hours.”