New Delhi: The Supreme Court has issued notice in a plea by former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate. The same bench has said that it will hear a similar plea by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal – who has also been arrested and jailed by the same central agency.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta heard the case. The same bench heard the plea by Kejriwal, and will do so tomorrow as well.
Bar and Bench has reported that the Supreme Court listed the Soren matter for hearing next week and said that the Jharkhand high court is free to pronounce judgment in the case.
This is the second time that Soren has moved Supreme Court challenging his arrest. Earlier, the apex court had refused to entertain his plea and sent him to the high court.
Soren heads the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Kejriwal, the Aam Aadmi Party. Both are in opposition to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been variously accused of utilising central agencies for its political ends. Soren was arrested on January 31 in connected with what the ED claims is a land scam. Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 in the Delhi excise duty case in which many AAP leaders are held.
In his latest affidavit to the Supreme Court, Kejriwal said that his arrest – just before the elections – spoke volumes about the arbitrariness of the ED and how the agency was being misused against political opponents by the BJP.
Relatedly but in a separate case, the Delhi high court said, according to Bar and Bench, today that an admission by Delhi and AAP minister Saurabh Bhardwaj on the fact that any increase in financial power of the MCD commissioner shall require the approval of Kejriwal amounts to an admission that “Delhi government has come to a standstill” after Kejriwal’s arrest. Kejriwal, unlike Soren, has notably refused to quit from his position as chief minister and has vowed to run his government from jail.
The high court has ordered the MCD commissioner to provide students with textbooks and other material they are entitled to.
