Who are the ED officers who arrested Hemant Soren when he was CM?
The arrest of hemant Soren in the land scam has been recorded in history. Soren is the first chief minister of the country who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate while in office. Due to the arrest, hemant Soren had to leave the post of Chief Minister.
The most talked about thing in Hemant's arrest case is ED and its 4 officers. These officers have been investigating hemant Soren's role in the land scam for the last 8 months. Sources have said that it was only after the arrest of Badigaon circle sub-inspector bhanu Pratap prasad in May 2023 that the ED found concrete evidence against hemant for the first time. Since then the investigating agency became active.
First threat of legal action, then case under Atrocity Act
In august 2023, hemant Soren had written a letter to the investigating officer of the case, Devvrat Jha, asking him to withdraw the summons. Soren had said that if they do not withdraw the summons, legal action will be taken against them. However, despite this, ED sent 8 summons to Hemant. Before his arrest, hemant Soren also lodged an FIR against these officers in the SC-ST police station of Ranchi. According to this FIR, unidentified officers of ED, including Kapil Raj, Devvrat Jha, Anupam Kumar and Aman Patel, first raided his delhi residence without informing him and then spread false news with the intention of defaming him.
Atrocity Act and the action taken under it
The full name of Astrocity Act is Scheduled Caste/Tribe Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989. It is also called SC-ST Act. Atrocity generally means cruelty, heinous or evil behavior. This Act was amended in 2018. At that time the investigating officer was given many types of powers. After registering the FIR under the Act, the investigating officer has also been given the power to arrest. If the investigating officer wishes, he can arrest the accused immediately. For this they will not need to take approval from any authority.
Different punishments for different types of crimes have been explained in the Atrocity Act. The investigating officer has to file the charge sheet within 60 days of the arrest of the accused. It comes under the category of a cognizable offense and its bail process is also quite difficult.