Supreme Court to hear Hemant Soren's plea against ED arrest on 13 May

The Supreme Court is slated to hear on Monday, 13 May, the special leave petition filed by former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren challenging the dismissal of his writ petition by the Jharkhand High Court against his arrest in connection with a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam.

As per the cause list published on the website of the apex court, a bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta will hear the matter on 13 May.

It may be recalled that the same bench ordered Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to be released on interim bail in the excise policy case till 1 June.

On Friday, the top court disposed of a separate plea filed by Soren seeking his release in view of the elections. It said that the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader’s prayer has become infructuous in view of the 3 May order passed by the Jharkhand High Court dismissing his plea against arrest.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had issued a notice to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Soren’s plea seeking interim bail on the ground of delay in delivery of judgment by the Jharkhand High Court despite reserving an order on his petition challenging ED arrest in the last week of February.

After SC issued the notice, the Jharkhand High Court pronounced its decision and dismissed Soren’s plea, saying that “there is an abundance of documents that lay a foundation for the arrest and remand of the petitioner to police and judicial custody”.

Hemant Soren resigned from the chief minister's post on 31 January, after the ED informed him that it was arresting him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).