Supreme Court rejects ED’s appeal against bail granted to Hemant Soren in land scam case

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Enforcement Directorate’s appeal challenging the Jharkhand High Court judgement granting bail to Chief Minister Hemant Soren in a money-laundering case linked to an alleged land scam, Live Law reported.

The bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan observed that the High Court’s judgement, which prima facie found Soren not guilty, was “very well-reasoned”.

During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju objected to the High Court disregarding the witness statements recorded by the Enforcement Directorate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

In response, Gavai stated: “In our opinion, it is a very well-reasoned order”.

“Ultimately, according to you, the mutation was done for some Raj Kumar [Pahan],” Viswanathan said. “So you must show some nexus with the original entrant. Except for saying that some visits to the property were made, what is there?”

He added: “Valid reasons have been given why they [witness statements] are disregarded [in the High Court’s verdict].”

The judge said that the High Court had specifically found that there was nothing in the records seized from one of the accused, Bhanu Pratap, that implicated Soren in the case.

The bench also said that the observations made by the High Court are related to the consideration of bail and would not influence the trial court or other proceedings.

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha...

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