SC issues notice to ED in Hemant Soren's plea against his arrest

The Supreme Court on April 29 issued a notice to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a plea filed by former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren's plea challenging his arrest.

A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Dutta indicated that the pendency of this case need not stop the HC from pronouncing their order in Soren's bail plea. The case in SC will now come up for hearing in the week commencing May 6.

During the course of the hearing, Soren's lawyer Kapil Sibal told the court that he was seeking an interim bail. Sibal, who had mentioned the case for an urgent hearing last week, told the could that Jharkhand HC had not pronounced the verdict in Soren's bail plea despite having reserved it in February. "The elections will get over by then," Sibal told the the court.

Soren had earlier moved the SC earlier challenging his arrest, however the court rejected it. The apex court ruled that Soren has the option to approach the high court to seek the same reliefs that he had requested from the top court. The SC expressed the view that it would not be suitable to directly entertain a plea challenging an arrest by the ED.