BMW Car Found At Hemant Soren's House Not His, It Belongs To...

The BMW car seized from Hemant Soren's Delhi home does not belong to him, but to a Rajya Sabha MP from the Congress who hit headlines last year for a massive cash recovery from his premises, sources in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have said.

The car, the sources said, is registered in the name of a firm owned by Dhiraj Prasad Sahu, Congress's Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand. Premises linked to Mr Sahu were raided by Income Tax officials in December and Rs 351 crore in cash were recovered. Shocking visuals of tax officials counting the mountain of cash had flashed on TV screens, prompting the BJP to attack the Congress.

The Opposition party had distanced itself from the cash recovery, saying the party is not involved. Mr Sahu had also stressed that the money belonged to his firm that was in the liquor business and has no connection with the Congress. The cash recovery had taken 10 days, and 40 currency counting machines had to be pressed into action for the tall task.

ED has now summoned the Congress MP on Saturday for questioning in connection with his car that was found at Mr Soren's residence.

Mr Soren, who was arrested last week, is being investigated in connection with an alleged racket of illegal change of land ownership by mafia in Jharkhand. He resigned as Jharkhand Chief Minister just before his arrest. He has denied the allegations against him and accused the BJP of abusing probe agencies to destabilise democratically elected governments.

ED officials had found the BMW car when they raided Mr Soren's Delhi home on January 29. The blue SUV has a Haryana licence plate.