New Delhi: Former Chief Minister Hemant Soren moved the Supreme Court on Monday against the Jharkhand High Court order dismissing his application challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam.
Appearing before a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, senior advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned the matter seeking urgent listing of his plea.
Sibal said polling in Jharkhand for the Lok Sabha elections will commence on May 13 and Soren should be allowed to campaign for his party JMM.
“Hemant Soren was arrested on January 31. We moved the high court on February 4. The high court reserved the judgment on February 28 but did not deliver the judgement. The High Court kept the judgment pending for long.
“The first phase of election starts in the state on the May 13 and so we moved this court under Article 32 of the Constitution, and notice was issued last week. After the notice was issued, the high court delivered the judgment rejecting his plea. Its very unfortunate that rights are being trampled in this fashion,” Sibal said.
The bench, also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said it would look at the request and that Soren’s plea for interim bail was set to come up for hearing on May 7.
Sibal said his appeal against the high court judgment should also be listed along with the bail plea.
The Jharkhand High Court had on Friday dismissed Soren’s writ petition challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and denied bail to him.
Soren is at present lodged in judicial custody at the Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi. He was sent to jail on February 15 after his 13-day ED custody ended.
The top court had on April 29 sought a response from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Soren’s interim bail plea in the case.
The ED has alleged that “huge amounts of proceeds of crime” were generated by Soren through manipulation of official records by showing dummy sellers and purchasers in the guise of forged/bogus documents to acquire huge parcels of land having value in crores of rupees.
Soren was arrested on January 31 after he resigned as the Jharkhand chief minister, and party loyalist and state transport minister Champai Soren was named as his successor.
The development came ahead of the Lok Sabha elections which were announced on March 16.
