Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren Reaches Supreme Court, Says High Court Not Giving Verdict Against Arrest

Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has filed an SLP in the Supreme Court against his arrest and ED action. Hemant Soren told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that the High Court is not giving its verdict on his petition challenging the arrest made by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the money laundering case. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Soren, told the bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Dutta that the High Court had reserved its verdict on his petition on February 28, but no decision has been pronounced yet.

What is the allegation against the High Court?

Former CM’s lawyer Kapil Sibal said that Soren had approached the Supreme Court on February 2 against his arrest, but the bench has asked him to approach the High Court to get relief. Sibal said, “We have filed a petition under Article 32 in the Hemant Soren case. The bench said to go to the High Court. We went to the High Court on February 4 and then the case was heard on February 27-28. But the decision on the petition has not been taken yet.” The senior lawyer said, ”We again went to the High Court and said that till the decision is not given, we cannot go anywhere. The judge did not say anything. At present he is inside and the election will be over. Then where should we go?

Demand for immediate hearing

“If we say anything, they will say we are attacking the judiciary,” Sibal said and requested to list the petition on Friday. Justice Khanna said that he cannot say anything on the listing of the petition and the Chief Justice’s Secretariat will give the date of listing of the petition.

The bench said, “Just give the details, it will be done.” Today or tomorrow, you will get the date for listing the case.

Made serious allegations against the High Court

Soren, in his petition filed through advocate Pragya Baghel, said that a pattern has emerged in the actions of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) of prosecuting and targeting individuals, especially political leaders associated with the opposition, on the basis of fabricated charges.

After resigning from the post of Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Soren was arrested in this case on January 31 and party loyalist and state Transport Minister Champai Soren was handed over the command of the state.

ED had arrested him in this case after interrogating him for seven hours. The ED is investigating a case related to “allegedly earning huge amounts of criminal proceeds by manipulating official records to acquire large tracts of land worth crores of rupees by showing fake sellers and buyers under the guise of forged/bogus documents”.

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