Jharkhand’s ruling JMM legislator and party supremo Sibu Soren’s daughter-in-law Sita Soren is facing investigation by the police in state capital Ranchi for charges of abducting and attacking a former aide allegedly to stop him from deposing further before the CBI.
The widowed MLA’s former personal assistant, Vikas Pandey, told police that he was illegally confined for hours at her official residence and beaten up by her and her two bodyguards on Monday evening. Pandey, who has earlier deposed before the CBI in its probe into allegations of rampant horse-trading during Jharkhand’s countermanded Rajya Sabha polls in March, accused the MLA of forcibly asking him to stay away from the CBI.
Sita Soren, the widow of the JMM patriarch’s elder son Durga Soren, described the charges as “baseless and fabricated”. She is one of over 20 MLAs in Jharkhand whose premises were raided by CBI sleuths earlier this year in connection with the agency’s probe into recovery of cash worth `2.15 crore from a car on the polling day.
The car allegedly belonged to a relative of independent RS poll candidate and businessman R.K. Agarwal.
Pandey’s wife Reena Pandey, who lodged an FIR against Soren, said the police rescued her husband at the MLA’s residence in Ranchi on Monday midnight after she informed them.
She said Pandey was picked up and forced into a car by the MLA and her two bodyguards while returning after buying vegetables. Ranchi SSP Saket Kumar Singh said: “We are ascertaining the charges levelled in the FIR and we will take suitable action soon”.
“These are baseless charges because he (Pandey) had come to my residence on his own as there is no bar on his visits. My bodyguards and staff all know him. The truth will come out in the police investigations,” said Soren.
While both the JMM and its main ruling ally BJP appeared to cautiously support Soren’s claims, some sections raised questions in the fairness in the police probe.