The former Jharkhand CM has been jailed in a land scam case since January 31 this year.
The Jharkhand High Court on Thursday reserved an order on the bail plea of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren after the conclusion of arguments in the case.
Final arguments were heard in the bench of Justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay of Jharkhand High Court on Thursday. Appearing on behalf of the Enforcement Directorate, Assistant Solicitor General SV Raju told the court that false cases were registered against ED officials at the behest of Hemant Soren.
Raju told the court that Hemant Soren is the biggest beneficiary of the land scam, so he should not be granted bail. He said that Soren is an influential person, who can misuse the State machinery to affect the investigation in the case if he is granted bail.
Hemant’s counsel Meenakshi Arora, on the other hand, brushed aside the arguments of ED and said that the investigation of the case registered in Sadar police station is still pending. As Hemant is just seeking bail, there is no need to go into the merits of the case at the moment.
Arora said that the PMLA court has taken cognizance of the ED's chargesheet. “We have filed a bail petition in the changed circumstances under the provisions contained in the law. Hemant Soren's name was not mentioned anywhere in the documents recovered from co-accused Bhanu Pratap. Not a single piece of the land being talked about is in Hemant Soren's name,” she said.
Arora argued that Hemant Soren was born in the year 1975 and the purchase and sale of this land was done around 1970. The company that made the map of the banknote does not have the name of any client. ED's case is completely baseless. Therefore, we should get bail, she said.
After hearing both the parties, the court reserved its judgement.
During the hearing, Hemant Soren's wife and Gandey's newly elected MLA Kalpana Soren were also present in the courtroom.
After resigning, Hemant Soren was arrested on the night of January 31 in the money laundering case. In the same case, Afsar Ali, JMM leader Antu Tirkey, Priyaranjan Sahay, Vipin Singh and Irshad, among others, have also been arrested.
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