Key Takeaways
- The Supreme Court directed Hemant Soren to seek relief from the Jharkhand High Court before addressing the ED summons.
- The Enforcement Directorate issued summons related to an alleged illegal mining case and a separate land‑scam investigation.
- Soren’s refusal to appear before the ED was labeled by him as a politically motivated action.
New Delhi: No relief for Jharkhand Chief Minister, Hemant Soren, with the Supreme Court on Monday refuses to entertain his petition.
He was asked to approach the Jharkhand High Court first to challenge the ED summons in connection with an alleged illegal mining case.
A two-judge Bench of the Apex Court, headed by Justice Aniruddha Bose & Bela M Trivedi, asked Mr Soren’s lawyer, Mukul Rohatgi to approach the Jharkhand HC for relief first.
“Why don’t you (Soren) go to high court? First you go there,” Justice Bose said, and refused to entertain Soren’s petition.
Mr Soren in his petition filed in August last week, before the Supreme Court said that there is an attempt to tarnish his image, and also the reputation of democratically elected govt and people of the state.
Mr Soren sought quashing of the issuance of sumnons against him in the money laundering case, besides other prayers.
The Jharkhand CM, had skipped twice the questioning of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the money laundering case.
The ED has been investigating two major money laundering cases in the state. The first case is related to illegal mining in the state. The agency questioned the CM in connection with the mining case on November 17 last year.
The second case pertains to an alleged land scam in the state capital. Thirteen individuals, including IAS officer C Ranjan, and two businessmen, have already been arrested in connection with the alleged land.
The ED on August 08, had summoned Mr Soren for questioning on August 14 at its zonal office in Ranchi to record his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Mr Soren had, however, did not appear before the agency and termed it as “politically motivated” case.
Soren had questioned the summons and asked the agency to withdraw it.
The agency, however, rejected Mr Soren’s claims and issued a second summons to Soren, asking him to appear before it yesterday.
