No prima facie case against Hemant Soren, claims by ED vague: Jharkhand High Court

The Jharkhand High Court on Friday granted bail to former Chief Minister Hemant Soren, observing that there was “reason to believe” that he was not guilty of the alleged offence of money laundering linked to an alleged land scam [Hemant Soren v. Directorate of Enforcement]..Soren has been accused of illegally acquiring 8.5 acres of land in the Baragain Circle, Ranchi and of being involved in a scheme to launder the proceeds of the crime while projecting the property as "untainted".Single-judge Justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay said that the claim by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that its timely action prevented Soren and others accused from illegally acquiring land, seemed vague since other witnesses alleged that land had already been acquired by Soren. "The claim of the Enforcement Directorate that its timely action had prevented the illegal acquisition of the land by forging and manipulating the records seems to be an ambiguous statement when considered in the backdrop of the allegation that the land was already acquired and possessed by the petitioner as per some of the statements recorded u/s 50 PMLA, 2002 and that too from the year 2010 onwards," the Court said.Pertinently, the Court stated that none of the registers or revenue records bore any evidence of Soren's direct involvement in the acquisition and possession of the said land.Further, nobody who was aggrieved by such alleged acquisition had approached the police to register any complaint despite the fact that Soren was not in power in Jharkhand during the relevant period, the Court noted."There was no reason for the purported oustees from the land in question not to have approached the authorities for redressal of their grievance if at all the petitioner had acquired and possessed the said land when the petitioner was not in power," the Court said.Hence, it concluded that the twin conditions for the grant of bail under Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) stood satisfied in the present case. "The consequence of the findings recorded by this Court satisfies the condition as at Section 45 PMLA, 2002 to the effect that there is 'reason to believe' that the petitioner is not guilty of the offence as alleged ... On an overall conspectus of the case there is no likelihood of the petitioner committing a similar nature of offence," the single-judge opined. Accordingly, the Court directed Soren's release on bail, subject to him furnishing a bond of ₹50,000 with two sureties of the same amount each, to the satisfaction of the Additional Judicial Commissioner (Special Judge) at Ranchi..Soren had stepped down as Chief Minister of Jharkhand on January 31 following his arrest by the ED in the money laundering case related to the “illegal change of ownership of land by the mafia” in the State.The case involves allegations that three person had purchased certain land in 1985 but that Soren and others had forcibly evicted them in 2009-10 to take over the land. It was further alleged that complaints made by the evicted persons were not addressed by the police.In a video released soon before Soren was taken into custody in connection with this case, he claimed he was being arrested on the basis of “fake papers” as a part of a conspiracy. Before the High Court, he argued that his name did not appear in any documents related to the 8.5 acres of land in the Baragain Circle, and that he had committed no offence under the PMLA..A plea challenging his arrest by the ED was dismissed by a Division Bench of the High Court on May 3, after the Supreme Court refused to directly entertain Soren's plea on this aspect and directed him to approach the Jharkhand High Court first.Notably, while allowing Soren's bail plea today, Justice Mukhopadhyay said that the Division Bench's observations in its May 3 judgment would not be binding while deciding on the question of bail. "An entirely new scenario has emerged with the filing of the prosecution complaint and the supplementary prosecution complaint. The present case being an application of bail and operating in an entirely different sphere and in view of the changed circumstances noted above would not be shackled by the observations made in W.P.(Cr.) No. 68 of 2024," Justice Mukhopadhyay said. .The single judge proceeded to observe that there appeared to be no evidence to specifically show any involvement of Soren in the illegal acquisition of land."The overall conspectus of the case based on broad probabilities does not specifically or indirectly assign the petitioner to be involved in the acquisition and possession as well as concealment of 8.86 acres of land at Shanti Nagar, Baragain, Ranchi connected to the 'proceeds of crime'," the Court noted..The Court also expressed surprise as to how the three original owners who had allegedly been evicted by Soren, could have purchased the land when it was admittedly "Bakast Bhuinhari" land, which is non-transferable under Section 48 of the Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act (CNT Act).Having arrived at these prima facie conclusions, the Court proceeded to allow Soren's bail plea. .Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal, Meenakshi Arora, Anurabh Chodhary along with Advocate Aparajita Jamwal, Abhir Datt, Piyush Chitresh and Shray Mishra represented Hemant Soren. Additional Solicitor General SV Raju along with advocates Zoheb Hossain, Amit Kumar Das, Saurav Kumar, Rishabh Dubey, Shivan U Sahay and Sankalp Goswami appeared for the Enforcement Directorate. .[Read Order]