Amid Summons To Hemant Soren, Jharkhand's Big Order On Central Agencies

Escalating the face-off with the Centre at a time when Chief Minister Hemant Soren has skipped seven summons by the Enforcement Directorate, the Jharkhand government has issued instructions to all departments to not answer any queries by central agencies or hand over any documents to them directly. The departments have been asked to report all queries to the Cabinet Secretariat or the Vigilance Department for processing.

While the Jharkhand government has said that it is streamlining the process to ensure incomplete information is not handed over, experts are seeing the move as a form of non-cooperation with central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate, CBI and the Income Tax department. 

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, which runs a coalition government in the state with the Congress as the other major partner, is a member of the INDIA alliance at the Centre. Several members of the bloc, including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee - in whose state an Enforcement Directorate team was attacked on January 5 - have been lashing out at the BJP government at the Centre for allegedly misusing central agencies in the run-up to the Lok Sabha election.

'Causes Confusion'

In a confidential letter written to all departments on Tuesday, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Vandana Dadel said that officials should not respond directly to notices and requests for documents related to any investigation by central agencies, and inform the Cabinet Secretariat and Vigilance Department instead. 

The letter notes that the central investigating agencies have been sending notices to the officials and calling them for questioning without writing to the competent authority of the state government. In many cases, it said, officials used to get involved in the investigation and hand over government documents to the central agencies without bringing the matter to the notice of senior officers, adding that this was the wrong procedure. 

Ms Dadel said the information provided is likely to be incomplete or inaccurate, leading to confusion and adversely affecting the state government as well as central investigating agencies.

New SOP

Ms Dadel, who is in charge of the Department of Cabinet Secretariat and Vigilance, said the state government has its own Anti-Corruption Bureau which reports to the department. 

Therefore, the letter states, the Cabinet Secretariat and Vigilance Department is being made the nodal department for sharing information with the central agencies to avoid confusion and ensure proper cooperation with them. 

The new procedure states that If officials get any notice from agencies like the Enforcement Directorate, CBI or the IT Department, they should inform their immediate head. The head of the department will pass on the information to the nodal agency. 

The Department of Cabinet Secretariat and Vigilance will then take legal advice and then share the information with the agencies accordingly. 

Despite the letter referring to cooperation and streamlining the process, experts see the move as a way of making it more difficult for central agencies to get information from the state. 

Summons

The Enforcement Directorate has issued seven summons to Mr Soren in a money laundering case linked to allegations of corruption and illegal change of land ownership by the mafia. 

According to a report by news agency PTI, the ED has also summoned Mr Soren's press adviser Abhishek Prasad and Sahibganj Deputy Commissioner Ram Niwas Yadav for questioning in a money laundering case linked to alleged illegal mining in the state. Mr Prasad has been summoned on January 16 and Mr Yadav and another person, Binod Singh, have been asked to appear on Thursday and January 15, respectively.

They will be questioned under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. 

The investigating agency had earlier raided their premises and those of Sahibganj Deputy Superintendent of Police Rajendra Dubey on January 3. The action was related to a case of "illegal stone mining prevalent in Sahibganj, having proceeds of crime of more than Rs 1,000 crore", PTI quoted the agency as saying.