Ranchi: Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren Files Bail Petition
Ranchi, Jharkhand – Former Chief Minister Hemant Soren, currently incarcerated, has filed a petition before the Jharkhand High Court seeking bail.
Soren, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on January 31 in connection with a money-laundering case linked to an alleged land scam, requested an expedited hearing from the High Court on Monday.
The petition is scheduled for a hearing on Tuesday before Justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay.
Soren’s petition asserts that his name does not appear in any documents related to the 8.5 acres of land in the Bargain circle, and he contends that no offense under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act has been established against him.
He further claims that the Enforcement Directorate’s case is based solely on statements from individuals alleging the land belongs to him, without any documentary evidence to support these claims.
Soren resigned as Chief Minister before his arrest on January 31 and is currently held at Birsa Munda Jail in Ranchi.
He has been accused of tampering with land documents for a plot in Bargain, Ranchi.
In his plea, Soren argues that Raj Kumar Pahan, the landowner, had complained to the Bargain Circle officer about encroachment on his land but did not mention Soren’s name. Despite this, the Enforcement Directorate implicated Soren, alleging the land was in his possession.
On May 22, the Supreme Court denied Soren relief, criticizing him for “suppressing material facts” in his plea against his arrest in the money-laundering case.
A vacation bench comprising Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma allowed Soren’s counsel, Kapil Sibal, to withdraw the petitions for interim bail for Lok Sabha poll campaigning and against his arrest. The apex court indicated it would dismiss them as Soren had not approached the court with clean hands.
The court noted that Soren did not inform it of the April 4 order by the special PMLA court taking cognizance of the prosecution complaint, nor that his regular bail petition, filed on April 15, was dismissed on May 13.
