PMLA court extends Soren’s ED remand for 3 more days
The special PMLA court in Ranchi extended the Enforcement Directorate (ED)’s remand of former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren by another three days on Monday, even as the Jharkhand high court fixed February 27 as the next date to hear the JMM leader’s petition challenging his arrest, people aware of the developments said.
The high court has also directed the federal agency to file its reply on the merits of the petition in two weeks, they added.
Confirming the extension of remand, advocate general and Soren’s counsel Rajeev Ranjan said the prosecution had no new logic behind demanding an extension of the remand period, and their intention was only to prolong the remand period.
“ED had prayed for an extension of four days, but the court allowed three days,” Ranjan added.
However, other lawyers present during the proceedings said that the ED pressed for an extension of the remand period, saying it had to probe the new facts that surfaced from the WhatsApp chat between Soren and an alleged associate and close friend, Binod Singh.
“Additional Solicitor General of India (ASGI), appearing on behalf of ED, was heard saying that the WhatsApp chat of 546 pages and time is required to investigate each point surfaced from the chat,” said advocate Rakesh Kumar, who was present in the court.
An ED official said the prayer for an extension of remand was done to “investigate the properties which have been freshly identified during the custody of Soren and to identify the trail of funds linked to him” and “to confront Soren with the contents of the materials available in his WhatsApp Chats with his associate”.
Apart from this, the ED official said, other reasons behind praying for an extension of remand included ascertaining the role of other persons involved with Soren for acquiring the proceeds of crime, to confront Soren with the outcome of searches and surveys which were conducted after his arrest and to confront Soren with the findings and outcome of the investigation going on in the case and the statement of other witnesses as the former chief minister is withholding the information.
Soren has been in ED custody since February 3.
This is the second time his ED custody has been extended. Earlier, on February 7, the court had extended his ED remand by five days.
During central agency’s custody, the court had also allowed Soren to participate in the floor test of the Champai Soren government.
In a related development, the Jharkhand high court deferred the hearing of the criminal writ petition filed by Soren challenging his arrest and ED remand till February 27.
Ranjan said, “The court deferred the hearing to give two weeks to ED to file a comprehensive reply after accepting my client’s amendment petition challenging his arrest.”
A high court lawyer familiar with the development said the order came after senior Supreme Court advocate Kapil Sibal, advocate Piyush Chitresh, besides Ranjan appeared on behalf of Soren, while Additional Solicitor General SV Raju and high court advocate AK Das appeared on behalf of the agency.
“The matter was heard in the division bench headed by justice S Chandrashekhar. Sibal was not in favour of providing a long time to ED to file a reply, arguing that the matter was related to a former chief minister, but the court did not accept his plea,” the above-cited lawyer said.
Even before being taken into custody, Soren had filed a petition in the high court and expressed fear of arrest. He had requested the court that no coercive action should be taken against him during interrogation.
On February 1, he sought time from the high court, saying that he had been arrested and had filed a petition against it in the Supreme Court. He also attempted to withdraw the case as it was wrong to go to two forums to get the same relief.
The ED, on the other hand, expressed objections to the petition withdrawal attempt and sought permission from the court to file a reply in the matter.
On February 2, Soren’s petition was heard in the Supreme Court, but the apex court refused to entertain the matter, saying it would set a wrong precedent. The top court directed Soren to go to the High Court first. Subsequently, Soren filed an amendment petition in the high court challenging his arrest.
The hearing was held on February 5. On the same day, the high court had given time until February 9 to the ED to file its reply and fixed Monday’s date for hearing.
The matter has been further deferred till February 27.