Former Jharkhand CM withdraws plea challenging high court order

Former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren on Monday, 1 April, withdrew from the Supreme Court his plea challenging a high court order that refused to grant him permission to attend the Budget session of the Assembly.

Soren had sought permission from the Jharkhand High Court to attend the Budget session that started on 23 February and came to an end on 2 March. On 28 February, the high court had dismissed his plea.

When his plea came up for hearing before a bench of justices Surya Kant and K V Viswanathan on Monday, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Soren, said he be allowed to withdraw the plea as the Budget session came to an end on 2 March.

"I wish to withdraw this," Sibal said, adding the question of law raised in the plea may be kept open.

The apex court allowed him to withdraw the plea, and said the question of law is left open.

Soren was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on 31 January in connection with a money laundering case. He is presently under judicial custody.

A special court in Ranchi had on 22 February denied Soren permission to participate in the Assembly session.

The high court had earlier allowed Soren, the ruling JMM's executive president, to participate in the trust vote in the Assembly on 5 February.

The allegations of money laundering against the JMM leader pertain to the alleged illegal possession of certain immovable assets and his purported links with members of the 'land mafia'.

The investigation is linked to a "huge racket of illegal change of ownership of land by the mafia" in Jharkhand, according to the central probe agency.

The ED has so far arrested several people in the case, including 2011-batch IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan, who served as the director of the state's Social Welfare Department and deputy commissioner of Ranchi.

The agency is probing the alleged "huge amounts of proceeds of crime generated by 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".