New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday provided significant relief to Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren by staying the trial in a money laundering case registered against him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). A three-judge Bench, comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice Vipul M Pancholi, issued a formal notice to the ED following Soren’s plea seeking the quashing of the proceedings.
The Chief Minister’s petition to the apex court also challenged the repetitive summonses issued by the federal agency. This legal move comes as a direct challenge to a recent Jharkhand High Court decision that had refused to quash the cognisance taken against him by a special MP-MLA court. On January 15, the High Court had delivered a setback to the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader by allowing the complaint case filed by the ED to proceed.
The ED’s complaint against Soren stems from his alleged non-compliance with multiple summonses related to an investigation into a land scam. While the central agency argues that the Chief Minister has evaded questioning, Soren’s legal team contends that the case and the subsequent summonses are legally untenable and should be set aside
