RANCHI: Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Hemant Soren stepped down as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand on Wednesday moments before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested him on allegations of money laundering. Soren faces charges of benefiting from tribal land transactions based on forged documents. In a letter addressed to his party’s legislators before his arrest, Soren confirmed the transport minister in his cabinet, Champai Soren as the new legislature party leader.

According to ED sources he will be produced in court on Thursday and the agency will seek his custody for further questioning as part of a probe into a "huge racket of illegal change of ownership of land by the mafia" in Jharkhand, as alleged by the probe agency.

Earlier on Wednesday, Hemant Soren filed a police complaint against Enforcement Directorate officials, seeking action under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

According to ED sources he will be produced in court on Thursday and the agency will seek his custody for further questioning as part of a probe into a "huge racket of illegal change of ownership of land by the mafia" in Jharkhand, as alleged by the probe agency. ED had questioned Soren on January 21 for over seven hours at his official residence, two days later he was again summoned to record his statement between Jan 27 and 31.

On 29 January 2024, ED declared Hemant Soren "untraceable" and "missing" for 30 hours after an investigation broke out at his residence in New Delhi from where he had got out minutes ago. He later arrived at his official residence in Ranchi, Jharkhand on 30 January 2024. He later confessed that he resides in the heart of his people. Earlier, he has skipped nine summons from the ED.

Meanwhile, even as Champai Soren who is not related to Hemant Soren, who is the ruling coalition's Chief Minister pick, sought to present the claim to the Governor to form a new government, news reports said that the ruling JMM-Congress MLAs claimed that the Governor CP Radhakrishnan refused to meet them at Raj Bhawan.