New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on a petition moved by former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, seeking interim bail in a money laundering case lodged by the agency in connection with an alleged land scam.
A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta sought the agency’s counter affidavit, setting down the next hearing in the week commencing May 7.
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Senior counsel Kapil Sibal pressed for an interim bail, citing the charge sheet filed in the case. He pointed out that the charges mentioned in the document relate to cheating and forgery. “Where is money laundering? Where are the allegations against me? I want interim bail,” Sibal submitted.
Responding, the bench said that the accusations in the case also mention proceeds of crime in relation to large parcels of land and that ED claims that it was collating the information about the related transactions.
Sibal, however, maintained that his plea for release ought to be considered also because the state high court was yet to decide his petition challenging Soren’s arrest by ED on January 31.
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At this point, the bench sought a response from the agency in the matter while clarifying that the Jharkhand high court was free to deliver its judgment in Soren’s petition in the meantime.
On April 24, Sibal had mentioned the matter before this bench, pleading to hear Soren’s case immediately in view of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
“We had moved this court under Article 32 (writ petition seeking enforcement of fundamental right), but we were told to approach the high court first. We went there. The case was heard finally on February 27 and 28 and the judgment was reserved. But it has not been delivered yet. We went back to the judge, but he said nothing. The man will be inside, and the elections will be over,” Sibal had contended on the day. Responding, justice Khanna had said that it was for the Chief Justice of India to assign a date of hearing.
The polling in Jharkhand for the Lok Sabha seats will be held on May 13, May 20, May 25 and June 1.
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader had earlier approached the top court on the evening of January 31, before he was arrested in connection with an alleged land scam. His arrest happened minutes after he resigned as chief minister of the state. In this plea, he sought protection from arrest on the grounds that ED’s actions were illegal and vitiated by political considerations. After he was arrested later that day, Soren moved a fresh application in the petition mentioned above, requesting the Supreme Court to declare his arrest unconstitutional for being a brazen abuse of power by ED.
When the apex court heard his plea on February 2, it declined to consider Soren’s petition first and instead directed him to file a case with the Jharkhand high court. While noting that Soren has separately moved a petition before the high court as well, the court asked him to pursue his case in the state but refused to set down a deadline for a decision by the high court.
ED has claimed that it has evidence that the JMM leader is the key beneficiary in alleged land related irregularities in Ranchi, where a network of brokers and businessmen were allegedly working over the years to create fake deeds of landed parcels by forging records in the registrar offices and further selling them off.
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A Kolkata-based businessman, Amit Kumar Agarwal, arrested by ED on June 7 last year, is key to Soren’s arrest as he is suspected to be the handler of tainted funds of several politicians, including the former Jharkhand CM, as alleged in a petition filed in the Jharkhand high court in 2021 by a lawyer, Rajeev Kumar.
ED has already filed a charge sheet in the alleged land scam on June 12, 2023, naming Amit Agarwal, arrested Indian Administrative Officer (IAS) Chhavi Ranjan and eight other individuals – Dilip Kumar Ghosh (a close aide of Agarwal), Pradip Bagchi, Afshar Ali (alleged kingpin who created fake deeds on landed properties), Mohammad Saddam Hussain, Imtiaz Ahmad, Talha Khan, Faiyaz Ahmed, Bhanu Pratap Prasad – and three companies allegedly linked to Agarwal – Jagatbandhu Tea Estates Pvt Ltd, Rajesh Auto Merchandise Pvt Ltd and Aurora Studio Pvt Ltd.
The alleged scam pertains to usurping prime landed parcels, including a 4.55-acre defence land at Morabadi Mouza at Ranchi, and a land parcel of 7.6 acres at Hehal, Ranchi – both valued at over ₹74 crore at the current market price, besides several other land parcels – by the accused persons by making fake deeds using manufactured identities and falsifying original land records at Circle Offices and Registrar of Assurances (RoA), Kolkata and Circle Offices in Jharkhand, according to the ED charge sheet. Overall, ED has recovered documents related to at least 27 properties of which alleged fake deeds were created by the accused people.
Soren has also filed a bail plea before a trial court in Ranchi, which is expected to hear the matter next on May 1.
