RANCHI: Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has filed a fresh application in the Jharkhand High Court seeking regular bail for him in a money laundering case linked to a land scam. He has also requested the court for an immediate hearing in the matter.
Soren is currently under judicial custody after being arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on January 31 in the money laundering case.
Earlier on May 22, Soren had withdrawn a petition challenging his arrest by ED from the Supreme Court, after being pulled up for “suppressing facts” regarding the filing of a regular bail plea in the trial court.
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."
Meanwhile, the ED so far has provisionally attached tainted land parcels worth Rs 266 crore (Commercial Value) and has arrested 22 accused persons including IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan, Bhanu Pratap Prasad (Revenue Sub-Inspector), Amit Kumar Agarwal, Prem Prakash among others in the money laundering case linked to land scam.
According to ED, three prosecution complaints have been filed in the cases of land scams presently under investigation in the state. The probe against Soren pertains to an 8.86-acre plot of land in Ranchi that the ED has alleged was illegally acquired by him.
ED is carrying out investigation in the land scam case on the basis of the documents recovered from Bhanu Pratap's house. According to ED, several important documents related to the case were found during the raid in Pratap's residence.