Just minutes after resigning from his position, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren was arrested this evening by the Enforcement Directorate. One of the seasoned leaders of the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Champai Soren, the minister of transport, will take over. After being brought to the ED office, Soren was formally placed under arrest later on Wednesday night.
Shortly after meeting with the Governor and submitting his resignation, Hemant Soren was arrested in relation to a purported land scam.

The ED claims that Soren is the main beneficiary of illegally acquired land acquired through fraudulent means in a large-scale land scam in Jharkhand, which is the basis of his case.

The agency’s investigation reveals a sophisticated scheme by a group of brokers and businessmen who falsified land records to produce fictitious deeds for valuable land parcels. Deeds are legal documents that transfer ownership of land or real estate from one party to another.

Soren, after evading the Enforcement Directorate over the weekend, had agreed to be questioned by the Central agency this afternoon. His statement was recorded during the questioning.

The former chief minister had been awaiting arrest for some time after dodging seven summons to appear in court in relation to a money laundering case involving the ₹ 600 crore land scam. He met with ruling alliance MLAs yesterday, and during that meeting, the topic of his successor was raised.

It was initially thought to be Kalpana Soren, his wife. However, the party was forced to abandon the plan due to the impending state elections, which are scheduled for November. Even though Kalpana Soren could have been named the Chief Minister, she could not have been elected an MLA because by-elections cannot be held in the final year of any state assembly’s term.

The central probe agency has so far arrested 14 people in the case, including 2011-batch IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan who served as the director of the state’s Social Welfare Department and deputy commissioner of Ranchi.