ED may move SC seeking stay on Soren’s bail in laundering case

NEW DELHI: Enforcement Directorate is likely to move Supreme Court seeking stay on the single bench order of Jharkhand HC giving bail to former CM Hemant Soren last week in a land grab and money laundering case. Soren was arrested on January 31.
Soren was released from Birsa Munda jail on Friday after Justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay rejected ED’s arguments and evidence alleging that the former CM was directly involved in the land grab case.
Sources said ED will appeal against this order in the apex court as a trial court had already taken cognisance of a chargesheet filed against Soren. The CM’s bail application was rejected by the SC on May 22, when the apex court had observed that since a trial court had already taken cognisance of the chargesheet against him and rejected his application for regular bail, Soren should not have approached it for interim bail.
Soren’s challenge to his arrest was also rejected by Jharkhand HC on May 3, after which he had approached the SC. His lawyer had sought interim relief to canvass for the Lok Sabha polls after the SC had granted interim bail to Arvind Kejriwal.
After his first round of custodial interrogation, ED had claimed before a special court in Ranchi that while in custody, Soren was confronted with WhatsApp chats with other accused related to allegations of money laundering but he had refused to cooperate. The agency had then claimed Soren’s chats over WhatsApp with his close associate Binod Singh were highly incriminating and contained transaction details of several properties.