The agency used Munda’s statement to counter Soren’s claim that he had no link with the said land.The ED also rejected the claim of a person named Rajkumar Pahan on the piece of land, alleging that he was a “front” for Soren to keep the asset under his control.The ED claimed that soon after Soren was issued the first summons in this case in August last year, Pahan wrote to the deputy commissioner of Ranchi stating he and some others have the land in possession and the earlier mutation in the name of other owners be cancelled and they may be saved from being evicted from their property.The state government “restored” the land to Pahan on January 29, two days before Soren’s arrest, so that the JMM leader’s control and possession remained “unimpeded,” the ED alleged.According to the federal probe agency, the land was originally a ‘Bhuinhari’ property that cannot be transferred or sold to anyone under general situations and ‘Mundas’ and ‘Pahans’ were the owners of such land assets.The immovable asset was later sold to some persons by the original allottees but Soren got them “evicted” and gained control of the land in 2010-11, the ED claimed.Santosh Munda also told the ED that Hemant Soren and his wife Kalpana visited the land “two to three times” and that he worked as a labourer when a boundary wall was being erected at the plot.The ED claims Munda was entrusted the charge of the property’s caretaker at the behest of Soren, apart from another accused in the case Hilariyas Kachhap who got an electricity meter installed there.A refrigerator was purchased in February 2017 in the name of Munda’s son while a smart TV was purchased in November 2022 in the name of his daughter at the address where the land is located in Ranchi, the agency said.Thus, the ED said, it is “established” that Santosh Munda and his family were residing at this property and it was not in possession of the accused person Rajkumar Pahan.”Rajkumar Pahan is acting as a frontman of Hemant Soren so that the property can somehow be shown to be in possession of Pahan and his family members and the evidence against Soren can be frustrated and the proceeds of crime can be kept concealed,” the agency claimed.
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