The Supreme Court on Wednesday (May 23, 2024) refused to entertain the plea of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren seeking interim bail on charges of money laundering in a land grab case for the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign.
A bench comprising Justices Dipankar Dutta and Satish Chandra Sharma expressed regret that Soren did not inform the trial court that the complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had been heard.
Then, “We expected some honesty from your party member. He should have said that he has already applied for bail. “We were not told that during the arguments.”
Finally, the court said it wanted to dismiss the petition, stating in the order that Soren had not approached it with clean hands. But Sibal said he was withdrawing the plea which the bench had accepted. Ultimately the petition was dismissed as it was withdrawn.
During the trial, Justice Dutta asked Sibal, “We want some explanation of the facts? When did you first become aware of the cognizance-taking order?”
At that time, he said, “Sibal said that Soren was in custody when he was taken for questioning on April 4, and it can be assumed that he came to know that day.”
In this case, Sibal said the SC had said in earlier judgments that an order issued under Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act would not stand in the way. The judges dismissed the petition saying it had “no effect”
