Jharkhand: ED moves Supreme Court against CM Hemant Soren’s bail in money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has moved the Supreme Court to challenge the Jharkhand High Court’s order granting bail to Chief Minister Hemant Soren in a money laundering case.

Soren, the leader of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), is accused of illegally acquiring 8.5 acres of land in Ranchi’s Baragain Circle and laundering the proceeds while claiming the property was “untainted”.

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The Jharkhand High Court granted bail to Soren on June 28, concluding there was “reason to believe” he wasn’t guilty of money laundering linked to a land scam. Justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay ruled the probe agency’s claim that timely action prevented illegal land acquisition was “vague”, as other witnesses alleged Soren had already acquired the disputed land.

“The claim of the Enforcement Directorate that its timely action had prevented the illegal acquisition of the land by forging and manipulating the records seems to be an ambiguous statement when considered in the backdrop of the allegation that the land was already acquired and possessed by the petitioner as per some of the statements recorded u/s 50 PMLA, 2002 and that too from the year 2010 onwards,” the court said, as quoted by Bar and Bench.

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The court stated that there was no evidence in any registers or revenue records showing Soren’s direct involvement in acquiring or possessing the land.

Additionally, the High Court noted that no one had filed a complaint with the police about the alleged acquisition, even though Soren was not in power in Jharkhand during that time.

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“There was no reason for the purported oustees from the land in question not to have approached the authorities for redressal of their grievance if at all the petitioner had acquired and possessed the said land when the petitioner was not in power,” the court observed.

The JMM chief resigned as Chief Minister of Jharkhand on January 31 after his arrest by the ED in a money laundering case related to the “illegal change of ownership of land by the mafia” in the state. JMM leader Champai Soren served as chief minister while Hemant Soren was in jail.

The court concluded that the twin conditions for granting bail under Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) were met in this case. After securing bail, Soren was sworn in again as Chief Minister on July 4.