New Delhi. Former Jharkhand Chief Minister 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 a 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.
Sibal said Soren had moved the Supreme Court on February 2 against his arrest, but the bench asked him to approach the High Court to seek 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 petition has not been decided yet.”
The senior lawyer said, “We again went to the High Court and said that we cannot go anywhere until the verdict is pronounced. The judge did not say anything. At present he is inside and the election will be over. Then where should we go?” Sibal said, “If we say anything, they will say that we are attacking the judiciary.” He 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.” 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. Is reflected in the form.
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 income 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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Tags: Hemant Soren, Kapil Sibal, Supreme Court
FIRST PUBLISHED: April 24, 2024, 19:51 IST