Jharkhand HC grants three weeks’ time to ED to respond to Soren’s affidavit

The Jharkhand High Court on Thursday, 2 January, granted the Enforcement Directorate (ED) three weeks to file a response to an affidavit filed by chief minister Hemant Soren.

The ED had filed a case before the HC seeking to quash an FIR registered by Soren against the agency officials under the Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Caste (Prevention of Atrocity) Act.

Soren had filed the case against ED officials at the SC/ST police station here for conducting searches at his residences in Delhi and Ranchi in January 2024. He alleged that the ED's actions were aimed at "humiliating tribals," leading him to register the case.

The investigating officer of the case issued notices asking ED officers to appear and explain their innocence.

Soren filed the case against ED additional director Kapil Raj, assistant directors Devrat Jha, Anuman Kumar, Aman Patel, and several unknown persons.

Kapil Raj and other officials approached the HC to challenge the notice issued against them and the criminal proceedings initiated.

During the proceedings, Soren filed an affidavit before the high court, refuting the statements made by ED officials and justifying the FIR. The ED sought time to respond to Soren’s affidavit.

In the FIR, filed in January last year, Soren alleged that the ED conducted the search operation at his Delhi residence to "harass and malign him and his entire community," officials said.

"My family members and I have suffered immense mental, psychological, and emotional harm because of the acts committed..." Soren said in the FIR, according to the officials.

An ED team had searched Soren’s Delhi residence in January 2024, where they camped for nearly 13 hours to question him in connection with an alleged money laundering case linked to a land deal in Jharkhand. He was arrested on 31 January after a marathon seven hours of grilling by the Enforcement Directorate in the same case and was released on bail on 28 June 2024.

The FIR was lodged under sections of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. These include charges related to instituting false, malicious, or vexatious suits or criminal proceedings against a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe, as well as insulting or intimidating them "with intent to humiliate" in any public place.

The sections also include abusing any SC/ST member by caste name in public view or using written or spoken words to promote feelings of enmity, hatred, or ill-will against them, particularly by "whoever, not being a member of a SC or an ST."