PMLA court denies ex-Jharknd CM Hemant Soren interim bail

Ranchi: A Ranchi Special PMLA Court denied Hemant Soren, the former Jharkhand Chief Minister, interim bail in a land scam case, Asian News International reported.

Soren had applied for interim bail of 13 days from the court to attend the funeral of his uncle, to which the court responded negatively. Soren also moved to the Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking relief and challenging his arrest.

Appearing for him, senior advocate Kapil Sibal told the apex court that the Jharkhand High Court had reserved its order on Soren's petition challenging his arrest in February last week, and the HC has not delivered its judgement. Sibal sought an urgent hearing, citing the ongoing Lok Sabha polls, and informed the court bench that the election would be over and Soren would remain in jail.

The SC bench said that the Chief Justice's secretariat would take a call. It asked Sibal to inform it once.

After Soren pleaded before the Jharkhand HC that his arrest was unwarranted and his remand in the case was arbitrary and illegal, the HC reserved its order in February. He argued that his arrest was illegal and malafide and pleaded for an interim bail, ANI reports.

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) Chairperson Soren was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a land scam case in January. He is charged with involving in forging official records to generate huge amounts of money. The official records were allegedly forged by showing fake sellers and purchasers in the guise of forged or bogus documents to acquire huge parcels of land valued in crores.