The Supreme Court refused interim bail on May 13 for former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren to campaign for the Lok Sabha election, but agreed to list his plea to quash his arrest by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in connection with a money laundering investigation linked to a land scam.
A Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, the same two-judge combination that had granted interim bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on May 10, refused point blank Mr. Soren’s lawyer, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, when he asked for liberty to come out and canvas for votes in the ongoing general election.
Mr. Sibal requested interim bail when the Bench issued notice to the ED and listed the case on May 20, during the court’s summer vacation.
