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Synopsis

The Supreme Court of India yesterday questioned former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren if he could challenge his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate after cognizance of the offence was taken by a special court.

Soren's counsel, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, is to answer the vacation bench hearing Soren's plea today.

A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma is hearing Soren who is seeking interim bail to campaign in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

"He was named in the complaint, cognizance has been taken, that order has not been challenged.. this was not the case in Kejriwal's matter, here the court is prima facie convinced that offence has been committed, he has accepted that cognizance order..", Court was told yesterday

Recently Enforcement Directorate had informed the Supreme Court that Soren was arrested way before the dates for General Elections 2024 were even announced. "He was arrested long back before the elections..There is no question of interim bail..", a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta were told.

Additional Solicitor General SV Raju made this submission after Soren sought interim bail from top court citing recent order granting relief to Arvind Kejriwal to campaign for elections.

Supreme Court agreed to hear Soren's plea challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a land scam case on an urgent basis. "Please grant interim bail..it will be infructuous by then..elections will be over, then please dismiss it..grave injustice is being done to us..this is not fair, Kejriwal's order covers me..", Sibal had submitted before court.

In February, the bench comprising Justices Sanjv Khanna, MM Sundresh and Bela M Trivedi had asked Soren to approach the High Court with his petition challenging arrest after refusing any relief to him.

Case Title: Hemant Soren vs. ED