SC rejects Hemant Soren's plea against arrest by ED, asks him to move HC

In a setback to former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren the Supreme Court on Friday refused to interfere with his arrest by the ED in a money laundering case and asked him to approach the high courtA special bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna MM Sundresh and Bela M Trivedi asked senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Singhvi appearing for Soren to seek relief from the high courtSibal said In these kinds of cases this court needs to send a message Here we are dealing with a chief minister who has been arrested Please see the evidence This is not fairJustice Khanna told Sibal First the courts are open to everybody Second high courts are also constitutional courts If we permit one person to approach the apex court then we will have to permit everyoneSibal who appeared along with senior advocates Abhishek Singhvi and Arunabh Chowdhury said Your lordships have this discretion This is a case where that discretion ought to be exercisedJustice Khanna referred to an earlier order by another bench in which Justice Trivedi was a partJustice Trivedis bench had asked Soren to move the high court in the matter related to challenge to the summons of the ED in the case Justice Khanna saidYou approach the high court Initially you filed this petition on the basis that notice under section 50 of the PMLA Prevention of Money Laundering Act has been issued Now an amendment application has been filed since he has been arrested Justice Khanna told SibalThe senior advocate said in the earlier matter before a bench in which Justice Trivedi was part of the constitutionality of provisions of the PMLA under which summons were issued by the ED was challengedSinghvi tried to persuade the court for its indulgence in the matter saying this court has concurrent jurisdictionThere was no necessity to arrest he saidThe bench however was not inclined to entertain the petition and ordered that Soren can approach the high court under Article 226 of the Constitution for reliefWe are informed that petitioner has already preferred a writ petition before the Jharkhand High Court which is still pending It will also be open to him to ask for expeditious listing and disposal of the case the bench orderedAs soon as the order was dictated Sibal urged the court to fix a timeframe for expeditious disposal of a petition pending before the high courtJustice Khanna said When you press for it they the high court will hear you out We are not going to control the high courtAdditional Solicitor General SV Raju appearing for the ED said a special bench was constituted by the apex court to hear Sorens petitionA common man would have never gotten these benefits he saidSibal shot back They are trying to topple this government thats a factSoren has also approached the high court on Wednesday challenging the summons issued by the ED and the subsequent actions of the antimoney laundering agencyThe high court on Thursday refused to grant him relief on the grounds that it cannot pass any exparte order without hearing the ED It had asked the copy of the petition to be served on the counsel for the probe agencySoren who had to step down as Jharkhand chief minister in the face of his imminent arrest in his plea before the top court had accused the ED of arresting him as part of a wellorchestrated conspiracy by the Centre ahead of the Lok Sabha elections due months from nowIn his plea filed through advocate Pragya Baghel before the apex court Soren has urged it to declare his arrest as unwarranted arbitrary and in violation of his fundamental rightsSoren was arrested on January 31 in a money laundering case linked to illegal possession of huge parcels of land and alleged association with the land mafiaHe was sent to oneday judicial custody on Thursday by a special PMLA court in RanchiSoren said in the petition that he was arrested from the Raj Bhavan where he had gone to tender his resignation as the chief minister along with JMM MLAs and those of the allied parties who enjoy a clear majority in the state assemblyThe arrest of the petitioner around 1010 PM on January 31 2024 is illegal and malafide and without jurisdiction it claimedThe plea said Sorens arrest has curtailed his liberty and the officers of the respondent No2 ED have abused their powers for extraneous considerations under the dictates of the Central government as the petitioner is the leader of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha a prominent opposition party and an active constituent of the INDIA allianceThe arrest is a part of a wellorchestrated conspiracy which has been given shape at the anvil of the general elections slated in a few months it saidSoren alleged the EDs action initiated at the behest of the central government was aimed at toppling his democratically elected governmentThe ruling alliance headed by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha has the support of 47 MLAs out of total 81 MLAs of the Assembly and they have elected Champai Soren to be their leader and to take over as new chief minister of the state of Jharkhand pursuant to the resignation of the Petitioner it saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever