Ranchi:

Ex-Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has been granted bail by the High Court. “Bail is granted. The court held, prima facie, Hemant Soren is not guilty, and there is no likelihood of the petitioner committing an offence on bail,” Mr Soren’s counsel Arunabh Chowdhury, told news agency PTI.

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on January 31 on money laundering charges. The ED has accused him of running a scheme to manipulate records, via fictitious transactions and forged documents, and acquire 8.86 acres of land in Ranchi worth crores.

The bail order today comes after a twin setback last month.

First, the Ranchi special court denied Mr Soren bail.

Then, in the Supreme Court, the Jharkhand leader was forced to withdraw an interim bail plea after tough questions over non-disclosure of facts; the focus was on Mr Soren not revealing the special court – which hears cases related to money laundering – had taken cognisance of the complaint against him.

READ | No Interim Bail Yet For Hemant Soren. He Cited Kejriwal’s Example

There was also confusion over a prior bail plea – dismissed – in the High Court, which then pointed to an “abundance of documents that lay foundation for the arrest and remand of petitioner”.

NDTV Explains | Hemant Soren’s 2 Bail Pleas And A Rap By Supreme Court

This was after the Supreme Court issued a notice to the central agency and sought its response to an interim bail plea filed before it on grounds the High Court was delaying delivery of its judgement.

The Supreme Court setback meant Mr Soren – unlike Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, arrested by the ED in the alleged liquor policy scam – could not campaign for his party, and the Congress-led INDIA opposition bloc, in the April-June Lok Sabha election.

Mr Kejriwal had been granted bail by the top court to campaign for the AAP.

READ | 9 Acre Illegal Land, BMW Car: What Report On Soren’s Claims

Hemant Soren resigned as Chief Minister on January 31, hours after the ED began a marathon questioning session and then informed him he would be arrested.

READ | Soren Refused To Sign Arrest Memo Until He Resigned: Sources

Mr Soren, however, refused to accept the arrest memo till he had quit his post, in order to avoid being the first sitting Chief Minister to be arrested.

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New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Friday disposed of the petition of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren seeking interim bail to campaign for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

The Supreme Court said that Mr Soren’s interim bail petition should be taken up along with the petition declaring his arrest in a money laundering case as “illegal”, due for hearing on Monday.

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader was arrested in January by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam. He had moved the Supreme Court against the Jharkhand High Court order dismissing his application challenging his arrest by the ED and denied bail to him.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who appeared for Mr Soren, told a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud that polling for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections in Jharkhand will commence on May 13 and that the JMM leader should be allowed to campaign for his party.

“Hemant Soren was arrested on January 31. We moved the high court on February 4. The high court reserved the judgment on February 28 but did not deliver the judgment. The High Court kept the judgment pending for long,” Mr Sibal said.

“The first phase of election starts in the state on May 13 and so we moved this court under Article 32 of the Constitution, and notice was issued last week. After the notice was issued, the high court delivered the judgment rejecting his plea. Its very unfortunate that rights are being trampled in this fashion,” Mr Sibal had said.

Mr Soren was arrested on January 31 shortly after he resigned as the Jharkhand chief minister. He is currently lodged in judicial custody at the Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi.

The central probe agency has alleged that “huge amounts of proceeds of crime” were generated by Mr Soren through manipulation of official records by showing dummy sellers and purchasers in the guise of forged/bogus documents to acquire huge parcels of land having value in crores of rupees.