Money laundering case: The Supreme Court on Monday sought the Enforcement Directorate's response on former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren's interim bail plea in connection with the money laundering case.
A bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta has issued a notice to the Enforcement Directorate (ED), requesting a response by May 6. The court also noted that the Jharkhand High Court might deliver its verdict on Soren's plea challenging his arrest in the case, with the decision anticipated after being reserved on February 28.
Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Arunabh Chowdhury, representing Soren, expressed their intention to seek interim bail in the case.
Soren moved the top court on April 24, saying the high court was not pronouncing the verdict on his plea challenging his arrest in the case.
When Hemant Soren was arrested?
Soren was arrested on January 31 in the case after he resigned as the Jharkhand chief minister, and party loyalist and state transport minister Champai Soren was named as his successor. He was arrested after being grilled by the ED for seven hours in the case.
Case against Soren
The probe against Soren pertains to an 8.86-acre plot of land in Ranchi that the ED has alleged was illegally acquired by him. The money laundering investigation stems from multiple FIRs registered by Jharkhand Police in land "scam" cases against several people, including state government officials.
The ED is probing the alleged "huge amounts of proceeds of crime generated by manipulation of official records by showing dummy sellers and purchasers in the guise of forged/bogus documents to acquire huge parcels of land having value in crores".
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