The Supreme Court on Friday refused to interfere with the arrest of former Jharkhand Chief Minister and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Hemant Soren by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a land scam money laundering probe [Hemant Soren vs Union of India and anr].A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, MM Sundresh, and Bela M Trivedi asked Soren to move the Jharkhand High Court first instead of approaching the Supreme Court directly."Why has he not approached the High Court. Why here (Supreme Court) directly?," Justice Khanna asked."We are dealing with a Chief Minister," Senior Counsel Kapil Sibal replied on behalf of Soren."Courts are open to everybody. If we allow one person, then we have to allow everybody," said Justice Khanna.The Court then made it clear that it is not inclined to entertain the plea and that Soren should moved the High Court first."Please go to the High Court, we will not interfere," Justice Khanna underlined.Soren had initially filed a plea before the High Court but had later withdrawn the same to move the Supreme Court."We are not inclined to entertain the present petition under Article 32. We leave it open to approach the jurisdictional High Court under Article 226. We are informed that a plea was filed before the High Court and is still pending. Thereafter another plea was filed under Article 226 which was later withdrawn. Open to petitioner to amend the petition," the Supreme Court ordered.The bench was hearing a plea by former the Jharkhand Chief Minister and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader against his arrest by ED.
The ED has accused Soren in a case concerning “huge racket of illegal change of ownership of land by the mafia” in Jharkhand. The agency recorded Soren's statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on January 20.So far, over a dozen people have been arrested in the case, including 2011-batch IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan, who served as Director of the State’s Social Welfare Department and Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi.The ED filed a prosecution complaint on June 23, 2016 in connection with the case under Section 45 of PMLA against Soren, Ranjan, nine others and three companies.While the accused persons are languishing behind bars, Soren has denied allegations of money laundering. In a video released soon before he was arrested, Soren claimed he was being arrested on the basis of “fake papers” as a part of a conspiracy. Soren stepped down from his CM post on January 31 in the wake of his arrest by the ED.
In his plea, he has challenged all the summons issued to him in the case so far, and sought protection from coercive steps to be taken by central agencies.Soren stressed that the summons do not contain any particulars of the probe against him, and that his personal assets have been acquired with funds duly declared in tax returns.
TAGS: Jharkhand Chief Minister Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader ED arrest "Illegal change of ownership of land" case
