‘Jharkhand High Court not delivering verdict over arrest’: Hemant Soren moves Supreme Court

New Delhi, April 24

Alleging the Jharkhand High Court was not delivering verdict on his petition challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case, former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned Soren’s petition before a Bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta and said the high court had reserved its verdict on February 28 but it has not been delivered so far.

“We had moved an Article 32 plea in the Hemant Soren matter. We had (later) approached the high court and the matter was heard on February 27-28 and judgment has not been delivered yet. The man will be inside and elections will be over. If we say something more, then it will seem like we are attacking the judiciary,” Sibal said.

“The Chief Justice Secretariat will take a call. Please inform once…,” Justice Khanna said.

As Sibal said, “This is very sad,” Justice Khanna responded, “You are (already) pronouncing the order.”

Soren was arrested on January 31 after being grilled by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for seven hours in a money laundering case after he resigned as the Jharkhand Chief Minister. 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”.