The Jharkhand High Court’s decision to grant bail to Chief Minister and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Hemant Soren in the money laundering case against him has been challenged by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Supreme Court.
Soren faces charges of obtaining 8.5 acres of land illegally in Ranchi’s Baragain Circle and of participating in a plot to conceal the property’s “untainted” status in order to launder the proceeds of the crime.
On June 28, the High Court did, however, give him bail, finding that there was “reason to believe” that he was innocent of the money laundering charge related to the purported land swindle.
The assertion by the ED that its prompt action stopped Soren and others accused from illegally acquiring land looked ambiguous, according to High Court single-judge Justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay, as other witnesses said that Soren had already acquired the land in question.
“The claim of the Enforcement Directorate that its timely action had prevented the illegal acquisition of the land by forging and manipulating the records seems to be an ambiguous statement when considered in the backdrop of the allegation that the land was already acquired and possessed by the petitioner as per some of the statements recorded u/s 50 PMLA, 2002 and that too from the year 2010 onwards,” the court stated.
Crucially, the Court declared that there was no proof in any of the revenue documents or registers indicating Soren’s personal involvement in the purchase and ownership of the aforementioned land.
The High Court further observed that, notwithstanding Soren’s absence from Jharkhand during the pertinent period, no one who felt wronged by the purported acquisition had gone to the police to file a complaint.
“There was no reason for the purported oustees from the land in question not to have approached the authorities for redressal of their grievance if at all the petitioner had acquired and possessed the said land when the petitioner was not in power,” the court stated.
Thus, it determined that the two requirements for bail under Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) were met in this instance.
On January 31, Soren announced his resignation as Jharkhand’s chief minister. This came after the ED arrested him in connection with a money laundering case involving the “illegal change of ownership of land by the mafia” in the State.
Champai Soren, the head of JMM, held the position of Chief Minister during Hemant Soren’s incarceration.
But on July 4, Soren was sworn in as Chief Minister once more after obtaining bail in the case.
