Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren was on Friday granted bail by the Jharkhand High Court in an alleged money laundering case linked to illegal possession of 8.36 acres of land. Soren, who has no other cases pending against him, is likely to walk out of jail.
Justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay granted bail to the former CM after hearing the matter for over a month.”Bail has been granted to Soren. The court has held that prima facie he is not guilty of the offence and there is no likelihood of the petitioner committing an offence when on bail,” Soren’s senior counsel Arunabh Chowdhury
Piyush Chitresh, associate counsel to Advocate General Rajiv Ranjan, said “The bail has been granted with two sureties each of Rs 50,000. We are in the process of getting the release orders.” West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee welcomed the court’s order.
The former CM was arrested on January 31 in the case, shortly after resigning from his post and appointing loyalist and state transport minister Champai Soren to fill his shoes.The 48-year-old politician has been lodged in Birsa Munda jail.
During the hearing, ED’s counsel SV Raju argued that if Soren is released on bail, he may commit a similar offence. His legal representative senior advocate Meenakshi Arora had earlier argued that Soren had been unfairly targeted in what she described as a politically motivated and fabricated case.
The ED had been investigating various cases in Jharkhand, including the alleged illegal sale and purchase of an Army plot in Ranchi. It was during the investigation into this case that the name of a former revenue sub-inspector of Bargain Circle Office, Bhanu Pratap Prasad, came up.
The ED claimed that Prasad, who was eventually arrested, was part of a syndicate involved in acquiring properties illegally, through force as well as by falsifying government records.
Several original land records were recovered from him, and his phone contained an image of an 8.36-acre land parcel which was allegedly in Soren’s illegal possession.