Supreme Court adjourns ex-Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren's bail plea to May 22

Supreme Court on Hemant Soren

The Supreme Court on May 21 adjourned by a day the hearing of former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren's plea challenging a high court order refusing him bail. The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief was arrested in January on charges of money laundering.

A bench of justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma adjourned the case to May 22 after hearing it for over an hour.

The adjournment was sought by Soren's lawyer senior advocate Kapil Sibal after the court questioned him on how he could have challenged the constitutional validity of his arrest while the special court had already taken cognisance of the offence.

The court also asked if the arrest could be challenged after the special court rejected Soren's bail plea.

Sibal argued that the case was about 8.86 acre of tribal land which couldn’t be transferred. Soren is accused of forcibly occupying the land in 2009-10 but the action against him was taken in 2023. The issue was a civil dispute over a piece of land and Soren did not have anything to do with the case, Sibal said. The ED concluded Soren's involvement merely by relying on some statements, he said.

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju, appearing for ED, said a special court had taken cognisance and found that “prima facie” a case could be made out.

“He was named in the prosecution complaint. That cognisance order is not challenged,” Raju said.

Drawing the Kejriwal parallel

While Sibal tried to draw parity with Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s case, the court said Soren's case was different as the court was yet to take cognisance in AAP leader’s case. The court raised the question on the maintainability of the plea before adjourning the case on Sibal's request.

During earlier hearings, Sibal cited the Kejriwal’s case and asked the court to release the JMM leader to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections. The final phase of polling in Jharkhand is on June 1.

The court on May 10 granted interim bail to the Kejriwal, allowing him to campaign for the Lok Sabha polls. Kejriwal has to surrender on June 2.

Soren approached the court twice before. On May 10, the court had disposed of his plea challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Soren moved the top court after the Jharkhand High Court didn’t pass an order on his bail plea despite reserving the decision in February.

The high court on May 3 denied him bail as it passed the order, making the plea in SC infructuous.

The JMM chief had in February  filed his first plea challenging his arrest in the Supreme Court, which rejected the petition and asked him to approach the high court.

Soren was arrested on January 31 on money laundering charges arising from an alleged land scam. Before his arrest, Soren resigned as the chief minister and his senior party colleague, Champai Soren, took over.

Soren's arrest is linked to a "huge racket of illegal change of ownership of land by the mafia" in Jharkhand, the ED has said. It has, so far, arrested 14 people in the case, including 2011-batch IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan, who was the director of the state's social welfare department and Ranchi deputy commissioner.