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Synopsis

A special bench of the Supreme Court today refused to entertain a plea by former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the land scam case.

The bench comprising Justices Sanjv Khanna, MM Sundresh and Bela M Trivedi has asked Soren to approach the High Court with his petition.

"Please go to the High Court Mr. Sibal, we are not going to entertain this..", the bench told Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and AM Singhvi appearing for Soren.

The Supreme Court of India had yesterday agreed to hear Soren's plea who was arrested on January 31, 2024, by the ED after fresh summons were issued to him a few days back for questioning.

Senior Advocate Sibal had mentioned the issue before a bench of CJI DY Chandrachud which agreed to hear the petition today.

"Contours of Section 19 PMLA have to be set out...how can a person be arrested like this..", Sibal had said.

In response, court was told the allegations against Soren were very serious. He has approached the High Court also, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta has submitted.

Sibal then told the bench also comprising Justices Pardiwala and Manoj Misra that the plea before High Court would be withdrawn.  "You will keep arresting before elections..", Sibal added.

Last year in September, Supreme Court had asked CM Soren to approach the High Court with his petition seeking to quash the two summons issued to him by the Enforcement Directorate under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

Soren had challenged the summons being ex facie illegal, null and void, and being violative of the object and provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 and impinging upon the Fundamental Rights guaranteed to him under Articles 14,19 and 21 of the Constitution of India.

He added that the case against him was a clear case of abuse of law by the Central Government and misuse of the Central agencies to destabilize the democratically elected Government of the State of Jharkhand of which he is the Chief Minister. 

"With the General Election approaching soon in next 7-8 months, the political atmosphere in country has been vitiated by the ruling regime and all efforts have been made to threaten, humiliate and intimidate the political leaders, and particularly, when the opposition has united to form INDIA alliance in which Petitioner and his party are vocal participant and integral part of alliance and who are not aligned with the NDA...", the plea added.

Case Title: Hemant Soren vs. UOI