Jharkhand HC dismisses Soren plea against ED action: ‘Can’t wriggle out by citing vendetta’
Jharkhand HC dismisses Soren plea against ED action: ‘Can’t wriggle out by citing vendetta’
Hemant Soren cannot “wriggle out of the mess he created for himself” by citing political vendetta, the Jharkhand High Court said Friday as it dismissed the former Jharkhand chief minister’s application challenging his summons and arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) as well as the agency’s subsequent actions in the case of alleged illegal possession of 8.46 acres of land in Ranchi.
Soren had told the court that his arrest was part of the BJP’s “game plan” of vendetta against leaders of the Opposition INDIA bloc in which he and his party are vocal participants.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Navneet Kumar said: “There is prima facie evidence of the petitioner’s association with Bhanu Pratap Prasad. At the relevant time, the petitioner was the CM and there was manipulation in registering the report in Sadar Police Station… The recovery of huge cash from his Delhi residence is not denied… and the excuse of the illness of his parents for keeping more than `36 lakh in cash prima facie looks untenable. In this state of affairs, by raising a technical plea, the petitioner cannot wriggle out of the mess he created for himself. Like the last resort to a losing litigant, an anxious petitioner has raised the bogey of political vendetta.”
Soren was arrested on January 31 and sent to ED remand by a local court on February 2. The genesis of the case is the arrest of one Bhanu Pratap Prasad — who was a land revenue inspector of Badhgaain area in 2023 and allegedly a part of a land-grab syndicate which falsified original land records. Several original land records were recovered from Prasad. His phone contained an image of an 8.36-acre land parcel which was allegedly in Soren’s illegal possession.
Soren skipped nine ED summons for questioning before finally appearing before the agency on January 20.
After the arrest, Soren’s counsel, senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, said the ED is attempting a “fishing” inquiry which is impermissible under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Soren termed his arrest illegal and questioned why the ED had started a fresh inquiry into assets which he allegedly possessed more than 15 years ago.
The court said Friday that the case set up by the ED against the Soren is not based only on the statements recorded under PMLA, including those who claimed themselves to be the real owners of the properties in question.
“There is an abundance of documents that lay a foundation for the arrest and remand of the petitioner to police and judicial custody. At this stage, this is not possible
to hold that the ED has proceeded against the petitioner for no reasons. The admissibility or otherwise of the materials collected by the ED can be examined by the Special Court if a prosecution report is filed against the petitioner. The learned ASG rightly contended that the scheme under the PMLA does not contemplate a mini-trial at this stage,” the High Court noted.
The former CM had also submitted that he was not accused of committing a scheduled offence and not connected with any proceeds of crime, and hence cannot be prosecuted. To this end, he cited the Supreme Court, saying it has held that it was not necessary that a person accused of money-laundering be made an accused in the FIR lodged for the commission of a predicate offence.
The High Court, however, said it does not find any substance in the submission.
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