Jailed former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Wednesday withdrew his plea from the Supreme Court challenging his arrest in a money laundering case after the SC refused to entertain the petition.
The bail plea was withdrawn after facing tough questions over the non-disclosure of pertinent facts, specifically about a Ranchi special court order taking cognisance of the complaint against him.
A vacation bench of justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma pulled up Soren’s lawyers, stating that they had suppressed facts and had not approached the court with “clean hands”.
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The bench decided not to consider Soren’s plea because he had filed two separate petitions—one challenging his arrest and another seeking bail—without disclosing that the trial court had already taken cognisance of the charges against him.
Following the court’s statements, Soren’s lawyers withdrew the bail petition from the top court.
The former Jharkhand chief minister had moved the top court seeking interim bail to campaign for the ongoing Lok Sabha polls. On Monday, the ED had “vehemently opposed” any “special treatment” to him.
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In its response to Soren’s bail plea, the probe agency had said that he is “highly influential” and “there is an active attempt on the part of the petitioner to subvert the investigation by misusing state machinery and to project the proceeds of crime as untainted”.
The case against Soren stemmed after the arrest of Bhanu Pratap Prasad, a land revenue inspector in 2023. He was 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 was arrested on January 31. His arrest has been upheld by the Jharkhand High Court and his regular bail application was dismissed by the trial court on May 13.
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On May 13, Soren referred to the top court’s order granting interim bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the money laundering case against him linked to the now scrapped excise policy and sought identical relief for himself. In his appeal petition, the JMM leader said the high court had erred in dismissing his plea.
Soren is currently lodged in judicial custody in Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Central Jail.