Former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren was on Thursday sent to one-day judicial custody after being arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a land scam money laundering probe.

Soren was questioned by the central agency as part of the probe into the “huge racket of illegal change of ownership of land by the mafia”. The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader has already moved the Supreme Court challenging his arrest by the ED and the hearing will take place on Friday.

In a video message, Soren had said he will not accept defeat. “It’s a break. life is a great battle. I have fought every moment, I will fight every moment. But I will not beg for compromise,” he had said.

In 2021, Soren had spoken to Hindustan Times’ Kumkum Chadha on several issues including corruption charges, an alleged plot to topple his government and his father Shibu Soren’s influence in his politics.

‘If a chaiwallah can become PM…can’t a sabziwallah topple govt?’

During the interview, Soren was asked whether his government is surviving because of a faction-ridden Bharatiya Janata Party in the state. The then chief minister had said,”The BJP had tried to topple our government several times. We have arrested some people who were out to destabilise our government.”

When asked about a vegetable vendor being among those elements, the JMM leader promptly replied,”That vegetable seller lives in a five-star hotel. When a tea-seller can become the prime minister, can’t a vegetable seller topple a government?”

‘Don’t I have the right to gain property?’

“I don’t know when and how the complaint was filed with the Lokpal. I don’t have a single information by the Lokpal. We will give a proper reply to the investigations. People had filed cases in high court and Supreme Court under different names but they lost everytime”, Soren had said in reply to reports of Lokpal probing 100s of assets worth thousands of crore rupees that allegedly belonged to his family.

“I don’t know which properties are being referred to. The zamindari system has been abolished in other parts of the country but not in my state. When I even lay a foundation brick, people get jealous. When these same people build multi-storey buildings, nobody tells them anything. Don’t the tribals have the right to amass properties?” he said.