Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, embroiled in an office of profit row with the Election Commission, has decided to turn the heat on five ministers of the erstwhile chief minister Raghubar Das regime by ordering state’s Anti-Corruption Bureau to probe into alleged disproportionate assets of the ministers.

Significantly, BJP national vice-president Raghubar Das had lodged complaint with the Jharkhand governor Ramesh Bais earlier this year accusing Soren of corruption for obtaining a mining lease near Ranchi while in power leading to Election Commission of India seeking reply from the chief minister on why he should not be disqualified under Section 9A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

A statement issued by the state public relation department on Tuesday late evening, said: “The probe has been ordered in light of a public interest litigation filed by one Pankaj Yadav in 2020 in the Jharkhand High Court regarding the disproportionate assets of the five ministers.”

Incidentally, Yadav who had filed the PIL on January 28, 2020 had alleged that the BJP ministers Amar Kumar Bauri (former land revenue and sports minister and current MLA), Neelkanth Singh Munda (former rural development minister and current MLA), Neera Yadav (former education minister and current MLA), Randhir Singh (former agriculture minister and current MLA) and Louis Marandi (former social welfare minister), who were part of Raghubar Das cabinet between 2014 and 2019, had a sharp increase in their assets ranging from 200 to around 1200 per cent in five years, based on comparison of their election affidavits details of 2014 and 2019.

The PIL is yet to be listed for hearing in the court.

Jharkhand BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo said the five are open to probe, but the timing is suspect. “Our leaders have nothing to hide. But the timing raises questions. Two years after the PIL was filed that too at a time when the chief minister is in trouble. It seems to have been done to divert attention from the chief minister’s own wrongdoings,” said Shahdeo.

Jamshedpur East MLA Saryu Roy had during the last Assembly session raised the issue of alleged “toffee and T-shirt scam” when Das, whom he had defeated in the last Assembly polls, was at the helm of the state in 2016.