RANCHI: A special PMLA court in Ranchi on Thursday deferred the framing of charges against Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren in the alleged 8.86-acre Bargain land fraud case to September 30.
Soren appeared before the court through video conferencing and sought time to examine the case documents. The court granted him six days and directed him to appear at 11.30 am on September 30 under all circumstances.
Soren was initially asked to appear before the PMLA court on September 19 after the Jharkhand High Court dismissed his plea challenging a lower court order rejecting his discharge petition. The hearing was later deferred to September 21 after his counsel cited his busy schedule.
On September 21, the hearing was again postponed after Soren could not appear through video conferencing due to a Jio server outage. The court then fixed September 24 for framing charges.
Meanwhile, Soren had filed a petition seeking to defer charge framing and trial proceedings, which was rejected by the court of the Additional Judicial Commissioner-cum-Special Judge (PMLA).
During the hearing, Soren's counsel argued that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had sought permission to file a supplementary complaint and that charge framing should be deferred until the investigation was completed.
The ED opposed the plea, calling it an attempt to delay the proceedings. It argued that supplementary investigation is permitted under Section 44 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and does not prevent the trial from proceeding on the original complaint.
Rejecting Soren's plea, the court said the Supreme Court's judgment in the Vijay Madanlal Choudhary vs Union of India case held that money laundering is a continuing offence and that filing a supplementary complaint does not halt trial proceedings.
Charges have already been framed against 16 of the 17 accused in the case. The trial will formally begin after charges are framed against Soren.