RANCHI: In yet another jolt of Chief Minister Hemant Soren, the Jharkhand High Court on Friday rejected his petition challenging the summons issued against him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a land scam case.
Notably, ED has summoned Soren as many as five times, but he skipped every time citing one or another excuse.
During the hearing held in a hybrid mode in the division bench of Chief Justice Sanjaya Kumar Mishra and Justice Ananda Sen, senior advocates P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal and advocate Piyush Chitresh presented their side on behalf of CM Soren, whereas ASG Additional Solicitor General SV Raju argued on behalf of the ED.
During the hearing in the High Court, the ED said that the CM had already violated the summons as he did not appear on any summons issued by it. In such a situation, there is no justification for him to challenge the summons; therefore, he cannot be given relief, said ED’s counsel.
Appearing on behalf of CM Soren, senior advocate Kapil Sibal told the court that no case is registered against the CM. In such a situation, it is not appropriate for the ED to summon him. The ED countered that the applicant has challenged Sections 50 and 60 of the PMLA Act, which has been decided by the Supreme Court in the case of Vijay Madan Lal Chaudhary, under which, the agency has the right to issue summons and record statements.
The High Court added that it cannot give any order in this matter. Incidentally, Soren moved to Jharkhand High Court after the Supreme Court refused to entertain his petition directing him to approach the Jharkhand High Court instead of coming directly to the apex court.
ED is probing two major cases of money laundering in Jharkhand.
The first case is related to illegal mining in Sahibganj in which the CM was questioned on November 17 last year. The second case is related to an alleged land scam in the state capital for which Soren has been issued summons twice by the ED.
13 people, including IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan and two businessmen, Amit Agarwal of Kolkata and Bishnu Agarwal, who owns shopping malls in Ranchi, have already been arrested in connection with the alleged land scam.