Special court allows Hemant Soren to vote in Champai Soren's floor test in Jharkhand Assembly

A special court in Jharkhand on February 3 permitted arrested former Chief Minister (CM) and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Hemant Soren to participate in the special session of the Jharkhand State Legislative Assembly on February 5 and vote in the floor test for the government of CM Champai Soren. .Special Judge Dinesh Rai passed the order on an application made by Soren seeking permission to participate in the floor test.Hemant Soren had stepped down as Chief Minister of Jharkhand on January 31 in the wake of his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).Champai Soren of JMM was then sworn in as the new Chief Minister and has to prove his majority on the floor on February 5. State's Advocate General (AG) Rajeev Ranjan told the Court that ED's objection to Soren appearing for floor test was proof that the investigating agency's intention was to bring down the government."The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had vehemently objected to our plea. But we told the court that the cat is out of the bag. We told the court that the ED's hurry in arresting the former Chief Minister was not for investigating the case but to bring down the government and now it doesn't want him to participate in the floor test," the AG said.Voting in the floor test is a fundamental right of the applicant Soren and the same cannot be defeated by the mechanism of inflicting false case and arrest, it was submitted. "Voting in the floor test has nothing to do with the investigation and should not have been objected to, by the ED."In the application, it was further stated that being a sitting Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in the current Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha, Soren has a right to appear in the Special Session of the State Assembly..Having heard the contentions, the special court permitted Soren to participate in the special session and vote in the floor test. "The court has ordered the ED to ensure the presence of the applicant in the voting process. The applicant has been asked not to speak to the media," Ranjan informed. .The ED has accused Soren in a case concerning “huge racket of illegal change of ownership of land by the mafia” in Jharkhand. The agency recorded Soren's statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on January 20.So far, over a dozen people have been arrested in the case, including 2011-batch IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan, who served as Director of the State’s Social Welfare Department and Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi.The ED filed a prosecution complaint on June 23, 2016 in connection with the case under Section 45 of PMLA against Soren, Ranjan, nine others and three companies.While the accused persons are languishing behind bars, Soren has denied allegations of money laundering.