Abhishek Prasad alias Pintu, press advisor to former Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Monday morning reached the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office. The Central probe agency—ED has summoned Prasad for questioning in connection with land scam and illegal mining case. The ED had earlier raided the hideouts of Pintu and several other persons on January 3, 2024. For questioning in the same case, ED had asked Sahibganj DC to appear in the ED office on January 11, Vinod Singh on January 15 and former CM's press advisor Abhishek Prasad alias Pintu on January 16. However, Pintu has written a letter to ED with a plea that his wife is ill, hence he should be given time after January 22 for questioning. After which ED sent summons to Pintu and called him for questioning on March 18.
ED had received many important data from the house of Abhishek Prasad alias Pintu. ED is also expected to get important evidence from the seized mobile phone. ED had sent a letter to the state police on August 8, 2022 regarding the business relations of architects Vinod Kumar Singh, Hemant Soren and Abhishek Prasad. In this letter, ED had sought information about Vinod Singh, the director of Grid Consultant Architect Company and under the influence of his political connections; he had made huge income and created property in the name of his family members.
The ED’s probe began primarily on the basis of a First Information Report (FIR) registered by the Sahibganj police in 2022 against Hemant Soren’s MLA representative Pankaj Mishra, who has been referred to as the “kingpin” of illegal mining by the anti-money laundering agency.
Bishnu Yadav and Pavitra Yadav, who operated Maa Amba Stone Works, the firm allegedly involved in illegal stone mining in Sahibganj, were also named in the FIR, lodged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Arms Act and the Jharkhand Minor Mineral Concession Rules (JMMC) Rules, 2004.
In August last year, the Jharkhand High Court had asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct a preliminary enquiry, which is generally a precursor to an FIR by the agency.
Then in November, the agency registered an FIR and booked Pankaj Mishra, Pavitra Kumar Yadav, Rajesh Yadav, Sanjay Kumar Yadav, Bacchu Yadav, Sanjay Yadav, and Suvesh Mandal for their alleged role in “pilferage and illegal extraction” of stone at Sahibganj’s Nimbu Pathar.
Meanwhile, sources said that before Holi i.e. on March 18, March 19 and March 20, ED will interrogate three important people of the state. ED has summoned land scam suspect Preeti Kumar on March 20 at 11 am. Ranchi's Hatia DSP Pramod Mishra has been summoned on March 19. Abhishek Prasad alias Pintu has been called for questioning today on March 18. Whereas after Holi, on April 4, ED will interrogate Congress's Barkagaon MLA Amba Prasad in the case of land robbery, extortion and money laundering of money earned in cases registered under the Arms Act. In this case, Amba's father Yogendra Sao is to be interrogated on April 3 and Amba's brother Ankit Raj is to be interrogated on April 5. ED has also summoned Dhanbad's Govindpur CO and Hazaribagh's former CO Shashibhushan Singh on April 2.
