The Supreme Court on May 10 disposed off former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren's plea over the High Court's delay in pronouncing order on his petition challenging his arrest, noting that the petition has become infructuous because the order has been delivered. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta said that Hemant Soren's plea over delay in pronouncing order on the former Jharkhand Chief Minister plea challenging arrest has become infructuous.
The apex court noted that Jharkhand High Court has recently delivered order on Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Soren's plea and rejected the petition challenging his arrest in the money laundering case.
The top court also noted that the former Jharkhand Chief Minister has challenged that order in the Supreme Court and said that Soren may raise all pleas and contentions in his another petition challenging the May 3, 2024 High Court order. The Jharkhand High Court in its May 3 order had rejected Soren's plea challenging arrest in money laundering case.
In the last hearing, the Supreme Court said that Jharkhand High Court may pronounce the order in Mr. Soren plea challenging his arrest in the money laundering case. Jharkhand High Court has reserved the order on Soren plea on February 28.
Aggrieved by the High Court for not deciding his plea, Mr. Soren moved the top court against it and in the meantime sought interim bail in the matter.
Mr. Soren in his plea before the High Court has claimed that his arrest was unwarranted and his remand in the matter was arbitrary and illegal. After a prolonged moment of speculation in the media and a hide-and-seek drama, Mr. Soren was arrested by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in the land scam case in January.
The probe pertains to huge amounts of proceeds of crime generated by forging official records by showing 'fake sellers' and purchasers in the guise of forged or bogus documents to acquire huge parcels of land valued in crores.
