Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s plea, challenging his arrest by the ED in a land fraud case, was declined by the Supreme Court. The apex court directed him to seek recourse in the Jharkhand High Court for the resolution of his grievance.
Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s petition challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a land fraud case was rejected by the Supreme Court on Friday. The court, consisting of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, MM Sundresh, and Bela M Trivedi, directed Soren to approach the Jharkhand High Court instead. The bench questioned why the petition was not filed in the High Court, emphasizing that courts are accessible to everyone and that high courts are constitutional courts. Soren had sought the Supreme Court’s intervention to cancel the summonses issued by the probe agency and declare his arrest as illegal. During the hearing, Sibal argued that the Supreme Court has discretionary powers, which should be exercised in this case. However, Justice Khanna pointed out that Soren had already been arrested and advised him to approach the High Court. The bench referred to a previous order from September last year, which instructed Soren to approach the Jharkhand High Court regarding the ED’s summonses in the money laundering case related to the land fraud. On Wednesday, Hemant Soren, who is also the JMM executive president, was arrested by the ED after being interrogated for over seven hours in connection with the land fraud case. He was arrested subsequent to resigning as the Jharkhand Chief Minister.
Prior to his arrest, Hemant Soren had designated Champai Soren, a leader of the JMM, as the party’s legislative party leader. Champai Soren has now been chosen as the new Chief Minister of Jharkhand, several months before the Lok Sabha election and the state assembly polls, both of which are scheduled to take place later this year.
According to Rajesh Thakur, the state Congress chief and a member of the JMM-led alliance, Champai Soren has been given a period of 10 days to demonstrate the majority support for his government. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), led by Lalu Yadav, is also a part of this alliance.