ED arrests key Soren aide for money laundering

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday arrested Pankaj Mishra, a key political aide of Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, in connection with a money laundering investigation being conducted against him and others.

Mishra was arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after around eight hours of questioning on Tuesday, officials said.

Mishra is a central committee member of the ruling JMM, besides being the assembly representative of CM Soren, who represents Barhait.

The federal agency had, on July 8, raided at least 19 locations, including Mishra’s premises in Sahjbganj and those linked to him in the state.

In a statement issued on Saturday last, the federal agency had said that following the raids, the ED had frozen deposits of ₹11.88 crore lying in 37 bank accounts belonging to Mishra and others including Dahoo Yadav, who runs a ferry service in Sahibganj district.

Besides the seizure of money from the bank accounts, the ED had said it had recovered ₹5.34 crore “unaccounted” cash during the raids and claimed that these monies were linked to “illegal mining” in the state.

Following the raids, the agency had issued summons to Mishra and had asked him to join investigations on July 12.

Mishra had however told HT he has asked for time extension and was available for questioning on July 19. He arrived at the regional ED office here around 11 am on Tuesday.

Reacting to the development, JMM spokesperson Manoj Pandey said, “It’s a legal issue. Mishra would be handle it accordingly.”