New Delhi: The Jharkhand high court on June 28 granted bail to Hemant Soren, the state’s former chief minister who had to step down before he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on January 31.
Soren has been in the Ranchi Jail since. He walked out of the jail on Friday.
After his release, Soren said, “I was kept behind bars for 5 months…We are seeing how the judicial process is taking years not just days or months…Today, it is a message for the whole country that how a conspiracy was hatched against us…The fight we started and the resolutions we made, we will work to fulfil them.”
#WATCH | Ranchi | On his bail, former Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren says, “I was kept behind bars for 5 months…We are seeing how the judicial process is taking years not just days or months…Today, it is a message for the whole country that how a conspiracy was hatched against… pic.twitter.com/6dVkrGvotg
— ANI (@ANI) June 28, 2024
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Justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay gave the bail order after hearing the matter for over a month.
The ED’s case is that Soren, the head of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha which is part of the opposition INDIA alliance, misused his official position and illegally acquired 8.86 acres land in Ranchi which the agency has termed as “proceeds of crime”.
Rejecting this argument of the ED, the HC has held that “there is reason to believe that the petitioner is not guilty of the offence as alleged.”
Jharkhand HC, while granting bail to Soren, also dismissed the case of the ED stating that “overall conspectus of the case based on broad probabilities does not specifically or indirectly assign the petitioner (Soren) to be involved in the acquisition and possession as well as concealment of 8.86 acres of land at Shanti Nagar, Baragain, Ranchi connected to the proceeds of crime”.
The HC, examining the case records and also the chargesheet filed by the agency, also held that “none of the registers/revenue records bare imprint of the direct involvement of the petitioner (Soren) in the acquisition and possession of the said land.”
Relying on the statements of witnesses recorded by the ED, the HC has questioned the claim of the agency that “its timely action had prevented the illegal acquisition of the land by forging and manipulating the records” while the statements show that Soren had acquired and possessed the said land from 2010.
Jharkhand HC has directed Soren to be released on bail on furnishing bail bond of Rs 50,000 with two sureties of the like amount each.
With Election Commission planning to schedule Jharkhand assembly elections in October this year along with Maharashtra and Haryana, this development is a shot in the arm for JMM and also the united opposition, INDIA.
Along with Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, Soren’s arrest – just before the 2024 Lok Sabha election – is highlighted as one of the ways in which the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party was keen to suppress political opposition. The ED, a central agency, is under the direct control of the BJP-led union government.
Many had pointed out that while the judiciary granted Kejriwal interim bail so he could campaign during the long elections, Soren’s case had not been dealt with with the same ideas.
On May 10, when the Supreme Court granted Kejriwal interim bail, it disposed of Soren’s plea challenging his arrest by the ED as “infructuous” because by then the high court had delivered an unfavourable bail judgment – only after the apex court issued notice on the former chief minister’s petition on April 29.
On February 2, just after Soren’s arrest, Champai Soren, one of the most prominent figures in the movement for the creation of the separate state of Jharkhand, took oath as CM. Soren’s wife Kalpana, along with Champai, campaigned widely for the party in the polls.
Among the tribal population of Jharkhand, The Wire‘s ground reports revealed, Soren’s arrest led to significant anti-BJP sentiments.
With inputs from Arvind Gunasekar.
