The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted interim relief to Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, staying further proceedings initiated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act over alleged non-compliance with summons.
A Bench led by Justice Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, issued notice to the ED on Soren’s petition seeking quashing of the criminal complaint filed against him.
The complaint relates to alleged deliberate non-appearance in response to multiple summons issued in connection with a money laundering probe linked to an alleged land scam. The Court stayed further proceedings before the trial court pending consideration of the matter.
During the hearing, counsel for the ED submitted that seven summons had been issued to Soren and that he had failed to appear even once. It was argued that the trial was at an advanced stage and that the petition had been filed nearly a year after the magistrate took cognisance.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Soren, contested the claim. He submitted that the Chief Minister had appeared before the agency on three occasions and had also been arrested during the investigation. He questioned the maintainability of the complaint and the repeated issuance of summons.
In oral observations, Justice Surya Kant referred to recent reports of the agency filing a large number of complaints and said attention should be directed towards more substantive matters. Justice Bagchi observed that investigative agencies must focus on effective prosecution.
The development comes weeks after the Jharkhand High Court declined on January 15 to quash the order of the special MP MLA court taking cognisance of the ED’s complaint against Soren.
The ED has alleged that Soren failed to comply with summons issued in connection with the investigation. The Chief Minister has denied wrongdoing and challenged the legality of the proceedings.
The matter will be taken up after the ED files its response to the notice issued by the apex court.