RANCHI: NMIn a significant setback for Chief Minister Hemant Soren, the MP-MLA court in Ranchi on Tuesday rejected his plea seeking exemption from personal appearance in a case concerning disobedience of summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering investigation linked to a land scam. The court has directed Soren to appear before it on 4 December.
Soren had filed a petition requesting exemption from appearing in person in connection with the case related to disobeying ED summons. The court had reserved its order on the matter on 11 November and delivered its decision on Tuesday.
The complaint was initially lodged with the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court but was transferred to the MP-MLA court on 3 June 2024. The complaint, filed on 20 February 2024 under Section 63 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and Section 174 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), accused Soren of ignoring ED summons.
The court, upon taking cognisance of the case on 4 March 2024, observed prima facie evidence of Soren’s non-compliance with the summons.
The ED, in its complaint, stated that it had issued ten summons to Hemant Soren in the money laundering case linked to the land scam. However, he appeared before the agency only twice, on 20 January and 31 January 2024. According to the ED, Soren disregarded the summons on eight occasions.
The first summons was issued in August 2023, requiring Soren to appear on 14 August. Despite this, the agency subsequently issued nine additional summons, with Soren appearing only twice—on 20 January and 31 January 2024.
Following his failure to comply with the eighth summons, Soren eventually agreed to join the investigation and was questioned by the ED at his Ranchi residence on 20 January 2024, for over seven hours.
On 27 January 2024, the ED sent another letter to Soren, asking him to decide on the time and place for questioning on either 29 or 31 January. The agency explicitly stated that if he failed to choose a suitable time and place, they would conduct the questioning at his official residence.
Soren, in response to the tenth summons, agreed to appear for questioning on 31 January 2024. However, the ED finally arrested him on 31 January after he reportedly evaded the agency by disappearing from his Delhi residence on 29 January. Soren remained untraceable for nearly 40 hours before resurfacing in Ranchi on the day of his arrest.
This legal development further intensifies the challenges facing Hemant Soren amid the ongoing investigation into the alleged land scam.
