Money laundering case: Former Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Monday moved the Supreme Court after the Jharkhand High Court dismissed his bail petition in a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam. Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Soren mentioned his plea before a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud seeking urgent listing of his plea.
The bench also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said it would look into the request.
Jharkhand HC dismisses Hemant Soren's writ petition
The Jharkhand High Court on May 3 rejected a writ petition by Soren challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and denied bail to the JMM leader. The court, however, permitted him to attend his uncle’s last rites on May 6 under police custody.
Soren was arrested on January 31 in the case after he resigned as the Jharkhand chief minister, and party loyalist and state transport minister Champai Soren was named as his successor. He was arrested after being grilled by the ED for seven hours in the case.
Case against Soren
The probe against Soren pertains to an 8.86-acre plot of land in Ranchi that the ED has alleged was illegally acquired by him. The money laundering investigation stems from multiple FIRs registered by Jharkhand Police in land "scam" cases against several people, including state government officials.
The ED is probing the alleged "huge amounts of proceeds of crime generated by 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".
(With PTI inputs)
