The Jharkhand High Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Enforce ment Directorate (ED) on a bail application filed by former chief minister Hemant Soren. Hemant Soren, who was apprehended by the En forcement Directorate on January 31 in relation to a money-laundering case tied to an alleged land scam, filed the plea before the high court on Monday, urging an expedited hear ing of the case.
Representing Soren be fore Justice Rongon Muk hopadhyay’s bench, se nior advocate Kapil Sibal contended that the JMM leader was a victim of po litical conspiracy. The court directed the ED to furnish a reply in the matter and scheduled June 10 as the subsequent date for the hearing.
In his plea, Soren asserted that his name does not appear in any documents con cerning the 8.5 acres of land in the Bargain circle, and no violation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act is evident against him.
He further contended that the ED was solely re lying on the statements of certain individuals who asserted ownership of the land parcel to him, yet there was “no docu mentation substantiating such claims”. Soren, who resigned as chief minister prior to his arrest on January 31, is currently incarcerated in Birsa Munda Jail in Hot war, the state capital Ran chi. He stands accused of orchestrating the falsifi cation of land documents for a plot in Bargain, Ran chi. Soren argued that the land’s rightful owner was Raj Kumar Pahan, who had lodged a complaint with the Bargain Circle office alleging encroach ment on his land by un identified individuals.
The petition under scored that Pahan did not mention Hemant Soren’s name anywhere, yet the ED initiated legal proceedings asserting that the land was under Soren’s possession. On May 22, Soren ex perienced a setback as the Supreme Court de clined to grant him any relief, admonishing him for “suppressing material facts” in his plea concern ing his arrest in the mon ey laundering case associ ated with the alleged land scam.
A vacation bench comprising justices Di pankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma permit ted Soren’s counsel Kapil Sibal to withdraw the pe titions for interim bail for Lok Sabha poll campaign ing and against his arrest, as the apex court indicat ed its inclination to dis miss them due to Soren’s failure to approach the court with clean hands. The court highlighted that Soren had not in formed it about the April 4 order issued by the spe cial PMLA court, which had taken cognizance of the prosecution com plaint. Additionally, it noted that Soren’s regular bail petition was filed on April 15 and dismissed on May 13.