No relief for Hemant Soren, Supreme Court refuses to hear interim bail plea

Former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren was arrested on January 31.

The Supreme Court on May 22 refused to hear former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren's plea challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in a money-laundering case, as it pulled him up for hiding facts of the case.

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief, who was arrested in January, has been trying for an interim bail, like Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

A bench of justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma pulled up Soren for not disclosing the fact that a special court had taken cognisance of the complaint against him, which left little room for him to challenge the validity of his arrest.

The court was also miffed over the fact that Soren pursued his bail petition, while also challenging the validity of his arrest.

Soren then withdrew his plea, a regular practice if the court expresses its disinclination to entertain a petition to avoid adverse observations.

The top court also refused to direct the Jharkhand High Court to hear and pass an order on his bail application in a month's time.

On May 21, Soren's lawyer senior advocate Kapil Sibal sought an adjournment after the court questioned him on how the former CM could have challenged the validity of his arrest when the special court had taken cognisance of the offence.

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

While Sibal tried to draw parity with Kejriwal, the court said Soren's case was different as the court was yet to take cognisance in AAP leader’s case.

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 in an alleged land scam. Before his arrest, he had 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 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.