Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren moved the Supreme Court on Thursday, 1 February, challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the alleged land scam.
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the matter on Friday, 2 February, according to LiveLaw.
Soren on Wednesday night, 31 January, resigned from his post amid a probe by the ED of the land scam case, thereby plunging the state and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), a Congress ally, into crisis.
He was in ED custody when he resigned as CM and was arrested soon after he tendered his resignation to Jharkhand Governor CP Radhakrishnan.
These developments came hours after ED officials arrived at Hemant Soren’s Ranchi residence on Wednesday for questioning during the ongoing probe.
Earlier that day, a First Information Report (FIR) was registered against ED officials under the SC/ST Act based on Soren’s complaint.
The ED is investigating an alleged multi-crore scam, wherein documents dating back to over 100 years were reportedly forged and transactions were made around it.
This is reportedly the first time a sitting chief minister was taken into the ED’s custody.
The parties in the Jharkhand coalition government include JMM (29 seats), Congress (17 seats), NCP (1 seat), CPI(M) (1 seat), and RJD (1 seat).
The BJP has been demanding President’s Rule in the state amid the ongoing ED probe that has triggered a political crisis.
A day after he tendered his resignation as chief minister of Jharkhand, JMM chief Hemant Soren has moved the Supreme Court of India challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with an alleged multi-crore land scam case.
Soren had initially moved the Jharkhand High Court, which was scheduled to hear the matter on Thursday, 1 February. However, Soren’s counsel and lawyer Kapil Sibal said that the petition before the High Court would be withdrawn, according to a report by LiveLaw.
