"They Can Keep Targeting Me": What Hemant Soren Said Before Arrest

JMM leader and former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren has said he is not afraid of the actions of probe agencies as he slammed the BJP-led Centre for targeting him through them for "political objectives".

Hemant Soren, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday, told Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal in his "Dil Se" YouTube programme shot before his arrest that efforts are being made to topple the JMM government in Jharkhand ever since its formation.

"As soon as I formed the government, it started facing challenges in which our primary opposition people were involved, but we tackled that," he said during his chat with Kapil Sibal.

The interview was shot in Delhi on Tuesday. It was released on Thursday.

Hemant Soren, tongue in cheek, said the ED has taken a liking to him and has been sending summonses to him since 2022.

"There is no FIR, there is no name, but the agency keeps trying to establish that 'you have broken a law'," the executive president of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) said in the interview.

"The ED has developed a liking for me. They don't say in the summonses why are they calling me. They think I will follow their orders. I said they would have to tell me the reason and only then will I come. When they explained the reason, I said I will come," Hemant Soren said.

He alleged that the probe agency's action was aimed at mentally harassing leaders who are against the BJP and their families.

"We (JMM) do politics on our own strength, we have stood on our own, we will protect what we have built," he asserted.

On the INDIA opposition bloc and its future, Hemant Soren said there is nothing impossible in the realm of politics.

On the actions of probe agencies, the former Jharkhand chief minister said he was becoming used to all this.

"They know that if I am in the field, they will have problems. First threaten, then give inducements, then they get to such tactics.... When they could not win politically, they are using other means," he said.

"They can keep targeting me, I don't care. I am not scared of this. We entered power politics because only through this can we support people," Hemant Soren said.

Kapil Sibal said various opposition leaders and chief ministers, from Arvind Kejriwal and Lalu Prasad to former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, are being targeted through probe agencies.

The former Union minister asked Hemant Soren whether his officials were also being targeted to which the JMM leader answered in the affirmative.

"They know that officials are the executing body, so they are threatening them. In my government, no direction is given for doing wrong and punishment is meted out for not doing the right thing," Hemant Soren said.

The ED arrested Hemant Soren after more than seven hours of questioning on money-laundering charges in an alleged land-fraud case, official sources said.

Before his arrest, Hemant Soren tendered his resignation as the chief minister to Jharkhand Governor C P Radhakrishnan at the Raj Bhavan in Ranchi and was then taken to the ED office

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)