EC Issues Notice to Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren's Brother in Mining Lease Scandal

The ECI issued notice to Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren's brother and state MLA Basant Soren in the mining lease issue.

Election Commission of India. Image used for representational purpose.

(File Photo: Amlan Paliwal/IANS)

The Election Commission on Thursday, 5 May, issued a notice to Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren's brother and state MLA Basant Soren in the mining lease issue.

Basant Soren is a MLA from Dumka.

The ECI has already sent a notice to Hemant Soren seeking his stand on charges that he issued a mining lease in the state in his favour.

In the notice, the Commission said that his act prima facie violates Section 9A of the Representation of the People Act, which deals with the disqualification of a lawmaker for the government contract.

In April, the Commission also contacted the Jharkhand Chief Secretary, asking him to authenticate documents related to the lease allotment.

The Commission has already started examining a set of documents and details furnished to it from the state government in the last week of April on a stone mining lease allotted to the present CM of the state by state authorities.

Section 9A of the PR Act says that a person shall be disqualified if, and for so long as, there subsists a contract entered into by him in the course of his trade or business with the appropriate government for the supply of goods to, or for the execution of any works undertaken by that government.

On 28 April, the Chief Secretary submitted an entire set of documents related to the mining lease to the poll body.

The EC will examine the reply of the notice sent to Soren before taking a final view on the matter and will be sending the same to the Governor.