Supreme Court upholds high court granting Hemant Soren bail

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the Jharkhand High Court's order granting bail to Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren in a money laundering case. The court was hearing a plea filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), challenging the bail granted to Soren by the high court, Bar and Bench reported.

The ED had argued that if the court released Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief Soren on bail, he may commit a similar offence. However, Soren's lawyer strongly argued that the CM was falsely implicated in the case by the ED.

The Jharkhand High Court had observed that its findings satisfy the condition that there are reasons to conclude that Soren is not guilty of the PMLA offence he has been accused of. The single-judge bench of Justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay at the High Court said that the ED's claim that its timely action prevented the illegal acquisition of land by forging and manipulating records seemed to be an unclear statement.

The case against Hemant Soren is linked with the alleged illegal ownership and possession of 8.86 acres of land in the Bargain area of Jharkhand's capital, Ranchi. The ED alleges that the land is linked to the proceeds of crime in a PMLA investigation into a syndicate involved in acquiring land illegally, The Indian Express reported.

As per the ED's allegation, the source of the case was the illegal sale and purchase of Army land in Ranchi. ED's probe into the case reached a revenue sub-inspector, Bhanu Pratap Prasad, of the Bargain Circle Office. It is alleged that Prasad is part of a syndicate falsifying land records.

The central agency alleged that Hemant Soren has directly indulged in the process connected with acquisition, possession, and the use of proceeds of crime and is knowingly a party with Prasad.