SC slams Hemant Soren for suppressing facts, JMM leader withdraws plea against arrest
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren for “suppressing facts” regarding filing of regular bail plea in trial court in a money laundering case, prompting the JMM leader to withdraw his petition challenging arrest by the Enforcement Directorate.
A vacation bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma allowed Soren’s counsel Kapil Sibal to withdraw his plea after warning that if the court goes into the details of the case it will be “damaging” for the former chief minister.
“Your conduct tells a lot. We expected your client to come up with candour but you suppressed material facts,” the bench told Sibal
“Your conduct is not without blemish,” the bench told Sibal, after he tried to defend Soren saying he is in custody and does not have any knowledge about the petitions being filed in courts.
“He is not a layman,” the bench observed and said it will dismiss his plea against arrest without going into the merit of the case. Sibal then agreed to withdraw the plea, which was allowed by the bench.
The ED had earlier told the apex court that Soren's arrest on January 31 has been upheld by the Jharkhand High Court and his regular bail application was dismissed by the trial court on May 13.
On May 13, Soren referred to the top court's order granting interim bail to Kejriwal in the money laundering case against him linked to the alleged Delhi excise scam and sought identical relief for himself.
In his appeal filed through advocate Praghya Baghel, the JMM leader said the high court had erred in dismissing his plea.
The ED has alleged that "huge amounts of proceeds of crime" were generated by Soren through manipulation of official records by showing dummy sellers and purchasers in the guise of forged/bogus documents to acquire huge parcels of land having value in crores of rupees.
The probe against Soren pertains to an 8.86-acre plot of land in Ranchi that the ED has alleged was illegally acquired by him.
Soren is currently lodged in judicial custody in Ranchi's Birsa Munda Central Jail.
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Rickelton's ton in vain as SRH beat MI by 6 wickets
Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.
MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.
Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).
