SC disposes of Hemant Soren’s plea over HC’s delay in pronouncing order

The Supreme Court on Friday disposed of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s plea over the High Court’s delay in pronouncing an order on his (Hemant Soren) plea challenging arrest as it noted that the petition has become infructuous because the order has been delivered.
A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta said that Hemant Soren’s plea over delay in pronouncing an order on the former Jharkhand CM’s plea challenging arrest has become infructuous.
The top court noted that recently Jharkhand HC delivered an order on JMM leader Soren’s plea and rejected his petition challenging arrest in a money laundering case.
The top court also noted that Jharkhand’s former CM has challenged that order in the Supreme Court and said that Soren may raise all pleas and contentions in his other petition challenging the HC order dated May 3, 2024.
Jharkhand High Court has rejected Soren’s plea challenging arrest in a money laundering case on May 3.
In the last hearing, the Supreme Court said that the Jharkhand High Court may pronounce the order in Soren’s plea challenging his arrest in a money laundering case.
Jharkhand High Court has reserved the order on Soren’s plea on February 28.
Aggrieved by the High Court for not deciding his plea, Soren moved the top court against it and in the meantime sought interim bail in the matter.
Soren in his plea before the High Court has claimed that his arrest was unwarranted and his remand in the matter was arbitrary and illegal.
Hemant Soren, who has filed the petition through advocate Pragya Baghel, called his arrest illegal and malafide. In the meantime, he has sought interim bail.
After a prolonged moment of speculation in the media and a hide-and-seek drama, former Jharkhand Chief Minister and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) Chairperson Hemant Soren was arrested by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in the land scam case in January.
The probe pertains to huge amounts of proceeds of crime generated by forging official records by showing ‘fake sellers’ and purchasers in the guise of forged or bogus documents to acquire huge parcels of land valued in crores