Supreme Court dismisses ED's plea challenging bail to Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) challenging the Jharkhand High Court's decision to grant bail to Chief Minister Hemant Soren in a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam.

A bench headed by Justice B.R. Gavai declined to interfere with the order of the Jharkhand High Court, which had granted Soren regular bail on June 28 with certain conditions.

The Bench, also comprising Justice K.V. Viswanathan, observed that it was a reasoned judgment of the high court, clarifying that the observations contained in the bail order would not influence the trial proceedings.

Just a week after his release from jail, Soren took oath as the Jharkhand Chief Minister for the third time on July 4. He was arrested by the ED on January 31 and spent five months in jail before being released on bail.

The ED moved a special leave petition before the apex court, seeking that CM Soren's bail be cancelled.

Earlier in May, the top court had refused to entertain Soren’s plea against his ED arrest. It had pulled up the JMM leader for pushing “parallel proceedings” observing that the plea filed before the Supreme Court did not disclose the fact of cognisance taken by the special court on the prosecution’s (ED) complaint.

Raising serious questions on the concealment of facts, it dismissed the plea since the petitioner did not approach the highest judicial forum with clean hands.