Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren moved the Supreme Court on April 24, saying the high court is not pronouncing its verdict on his plea challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Mr. Soren, made an urgent mentioning, saying he was stuck in the HC with his plea for quashing the case. He sought a hearing on Friday. He told a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta that the HC had reserved its verdict on February 28 on his plea but still no decision has been delivered.
Mr. Soren was arrested on January 31 after he resigned as the Jharkhand chief minister, and party loyalist and state transport minister Champai Soren was named as his successor. He was arrested after being grilled by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for seven hours in the case.
The ED is probing the alleged "huge amounts of proceeds of crime generated by manipulation of official records by showing dummy sellers and purchasers in the guise of forged/bogus documents to acquire huge parcels of land having value in crores''.
