Ranchi, December 4 (IANS). Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren did not appear in the MP-MLA Special Court of Ranchi on Wednesday in the case related to disregard of ED summons. This court had on November 25 rejected his petition seeking exemption from personal appearance and ordered him to appear on December 4. Hemant Soren has challenged this order in the Jharkhand High Court.
The petition filed in the High Court through Hemant Soren’s advocates Piyush Chitresh, Dipankar Roy and Shrey Mishra has been listed for hearing in the bench of High Court Justice Anil Kumar Chaudhary.
A complaint was filed by the ED against Hemant Soren in the CJM court on February 19, 2024. In this, the agency has said that ten summons were sent to Hemant Soren for questioning in the land scam, but he appeared on only two of these summons. This is illegal under Section 63 of PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) and Section 174 of IPC. The court had taken cognizance of this matter after hearing it on March 4.
Later the case was transferred to MP-MLA Special Court. After this, Hemant Soren had filed a petition on July 5 requesting that he be exempted from personal presence during the hearing in the complaint case filed against him by the ED alleging disregard of summons. His petition was rejected by the court of MP-MLA Special Court Judge Sarthak Sharma.
ED had sent summons to Hemant Soren for the first time to appear on 14 August 2023 regarding the land scam related to Badgai area of Ranchi. After this, summons were sent to him on 19 August, 1 September, 17 September, 26 September, 11 December, 29 December and in 2024 on 13 January, 22 January and 27 January. He was interrogated on January 31 on the tenth summons and after that he was arrested.
–IANS
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