JMM justifies mining lease to CM, says no wrong committed

Ranchi: The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha today made it clear that Chief Minister Hemant Soren had done nothing wrong by taking a mining lease in his name and his act does not come under the purview of section 9A of the Representation of the People Act 1951 as being said by BJP.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya and Giridih legislator Sudivya Kumar Sonu they cited several Supreme Court and high court judgments delivered between 1964-and 2006 in this connection. 

The BJP had alleged that the press advisor to the Chief Minister took a mining lease and other family members took land to carry out their business. On this, the MLS said there is nothing wrong in doing so if the business is legal and is being run legally. He cited the example of Sudesh Mahto, Manish Jaiswal, Nitin Gadkari, and several other leaders who despite being legislators and parliamentarians are indulged in business.

Asked as to why they are giving clarification by organising press conferences when the matter does not come under said Act and ECI has not taken any decision in the matter, he said it was required observing the way Election Commission of India (ECI) has been taking decisions coming under the influence of central leadership.

When asked as to what the party will do in case ECI takes action under the said section, the legislator said the door of the court is open in case interpretation of the law is required. When asked about morality and ethics the MLA said it was due to the Chief Minister surrendering his mining lease and has always been informed about the mining lease to ECI at the time of filing nominations.

The Chief Minister did not sign the documents as it was done at the DC level as an area of the lease is hardly 80 decimal. He said people in the state know well how former Chief Minister Raghubar Das did corruption in ‘Momentum Jharkhand’ where as far as Babulal Marandi is concerned, he does not have the right to talk about morality as he is the same person who left BJP in 2004 to float his party JVM and in the 2019 election, he defeated BJP as a JVM candidate and then again joined BJP.