The bail petition of Pankaj Mishra, the MLA representative of Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an illegal mining case, was denied on Saturday by the Special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Court in Ranchi, news agency ANI reported.
Jharkhand | Special PMLA Court, Ranchi today rejected the bail petition of Pankaj Mishra, the MLA representative of Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who was arrested by ED in an illegal mining case.
— ANI (@ANI) November 26, 2022
According to media sources, the court denied his plea for regular bail on the grounds that the charges against him are severe and that he could tamper with the investigation.
The Enforcement Directorate filed a prosecution charge against Pankaj Mishra, electricity trader Prem Prakash, and local criminal Sahibganj Bacchu Yadav in this case.
Meanwhile, the agency will soon submit to the court a full report on how Pankaj Mishra, who is in judicial custody, interfered with the probe and made phone calls from the RIMS paying ward, according to local media reports.
Furthermore, the agency is reviewing RIMS CCTV footage to determine who else visited Pankaj Mishra at RIMS with authorization. According to reliable sources, the CCTV footage consists of 5000 video clips. The ED is investigating whether the footage was altered in order to conceal the truth.
The financial investigation agency revealed in its chargesheet against Hemant Soren’s assistant Pankaj Mishra that these bank records were discovered during searches in Jharkhand’s Sahibganj on July 8, 2022.
The searches were conducted after the ED filed a case against Mishra and others in March under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), saying that the former “illegally seized or amassed large assets in his favour.”
According to the chargesheet, Pankaj Mishra was actively involved in illicit mining and diverting crores of rupees under the national directive of Hemant Soren, despite his strong relationship with the chief minister.
Pankaj Mishra was previously arrested by the ED and is currently being held in judicial custody. After examining several of the accused’s homes in connection with the case, the ED confiscated crores in cash. Along with bank documents and cash, officials confiscated an inland vessel worth Rs 30 crore that was being operated at Pankaj Mishra’s request.
(With Inputs From Agencies)