Hemant Soren, Chief Minister of Jharkhand, has stirred outrage after the mines department in the state gave him a lease for a stone quarry near Ranchi. The issue was brought to the attention of the Raj Bhavan when a Bharatiya Janata Party delegation led by former Chief Minister Raghubar Das filed a memorandum on February 10.
Soren had violated Section 9A of the Representation of the Peoples Act 1951 by misusing his office’s power, according to the memorandum. Because Soren acquired the mining concession despite being the chief minister, the BJP said it was an example of profiteering from his position.
The BJP has also demanded that Soren be ousted as chief minister for violating the 1951 Representation of the Peoples Act. According to reports, the Election Commission has also called the chief secretary, requesting that the government validate the papers relating to mining lease issuance.
The case concerns a stone quarry mining lease awarded by the District Mining Department to Hemant Soren in June 2021 for 0.88 acres of land in Ranchi’s Angara block.
A PIL has also been filed in the Jharkhand High Court by Shiv Shankar Sharma, who sought the disqualification of the current CM’s membership for fraud. The PIL was filed to request an investigation into the assets earned by the Soren family members, Hemant Soren and his brother Basant Soren, other than their recognised source of income.
On Friday, April 22, the Jharkhand High Court will hear the petition filed against the Soren family. The case has been scheduled for hearing by a bench consisting of Chief Justice Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad. The petition requests that the court conduct an investigation. There has been a demand in the petition for investigation of the entire property by the CBI, ED and Income Tax Department.
In this matter, CM Hemant Soren, the Chief Secretary of Jharkhand, and Basant Soren, among others, have been named as respondents.
