RANCHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed an 18-page petition on Wednesday requesting a seven-day extension of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s remand. After hearing the ED counsel, the court allowed the petition and extended his remand for five more days.In the petition, the agency submitted WhatsApp chats between Soren and his friend and associate Binod Kumar Singh, alleging the exchanges to be highly incriminating and containing details of several properties.The ED, in its petition obtained by TNIE, claimed that Hemant Soren displays acute non-cooperation and reluctance in disclosing information regarding properties acquired by himself and individuals associated with him.The probing agency says it has recovered around 1739 materials of conversations between Binod Singh, Hemant Soren, and others from his two mobile phones. The conversation also mentions one Lalaji, who is said to be a very big party from Kolkata.According to ED, the WhatsApp messages not only include the exchange of confidential information regarding several properties but also other incriminating information relating to transfer posting, sharing of government records, etc., out of which a huge amount of money appears to have been generated and transacted.“In addition to this, Binod Singh has Whatsapp chats with several other people about the transfer of officials, the possession and sharing of several admit cards of students appearing for competitive exams held by the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission, etc.,” the probing agency stated in its petition and added that these conversations contained around 539 pages of several confidential documents.
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