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NEW DELHI: Jharkhand’s former CM Hemant Soren on Thursday moved Supreme Court for quashing of his arrest by ED in an alleged money laundering case, while accusing the agency of acting at the behest of the Centre to topple the state’s JMM-Congress coalition govt. Soren, who was sent to judicial custody for a day by a special PMLA court, sought his immediate release.
The plea, filed on his behalf by wife Kalpana, was mentioned for urgent listing before a bench of the CJI and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, which listed it for hearing Friday.
Soren pleaded with SC to “declare his arrest as unwarranted, arbitrary, illegal and violative of his fundamental rights”, and said he had directly approached the apex court as this was a clear case of abuse of law by the Centre and misuse of central agencies to harass him.
Witch hunt started after BJP was defeated in 2019: Soren
In his petition to the Supreme Court, Jharkhand former CM Hemant Soren said on Thursday that the Centre started a witch-hunt against him after the JMM-Congress alliance had defeated the BJP in 2019 assembly elections.
The CJI ordinarily refuses oral requests for listing, especially when he is heading a Constitution bench. At present, he is leading a seven-judge bench hearing the contentious issue relating to determination of Aligarh Muslim University’s denominational status. However, given the unprecedented nature of the case – arrest of a CM within an hour of his resignation – CJI Chandrachud agreed to delay sitting of the 7-judge bench and assembled a three-judge bench to hear senior advocates Kapil Sibal and A M Singhvi, who represented Soren. Soren’s petition is listed before a special bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, M M Sundresh and Bela M Trivedi at 10.30am on Friday.
Both Sibal and Singhvi argued that misuse of central agencies to hound political opponents and opposition leaders vitiated the polity of the country, and had a deleterious impact when the general elections were round the corner. “Can a CM be arrested in such a manner,” Sibal asked SC. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and ASG S V Raju pointed out that an identical petition was filed by Soren on Wednesday in Jharkhand HC, which had listed it for hearing on Thursday. Sibal said he had advised his client to withdraw the petition from HC.
The plea, filed on his behalf by wife Kalpana, was mentioned for urgent listing before a bench of the CJI and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, which listed it for hearing Friday.
Soren pleaded with SC to “declare his arrest as unwarranted, arbitrary, illegal and violative of his fundamental rights”, and said he had directly approached the apex court as this was a clear case of abuse of law by the Centre and misuse of central agencies to harass him.
Witch hunt started after BJP was defeated in 2019: Soren
In his petition to the Supreme Court, Jharkhand former CM Hemant Soren said on Thursday that the Centre started a witch-hunt against him after the JMM-Congress alliance had defeated the BJP in 2019 assembly elections.
The CJI ordinarily refuses oral requests for listing, especially when he is heading a Constitution bench. At present, he is leading a seven-judge bench hearing the contentious issue relating to determination of Aligarh Muslim University’s denominational status. However, given the unprecedented nature of the case – arrest of a CM within an hour of his resignation – CJI Chandrachud agreed to delay sitting of the 7-judge bench and assembled a three-judge bench to hear senior advocates Kapil Sibal and A M Singhvi, who represented Soren. Soren’s petition is listed before a special bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, M M Sundresh and Bela M Trivedi at 10.30am on Friday.
Both Sibal and Singhvi argued that misuse of central agencies to hound political opponents and opposition leaders vitiated the polity of the country, and had a deleterious impact when the general elections were round the corner. “Can a CM be arrested in such a manner,” Sibal asked SC. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and ASG S V Raju pointed out that an identical petition was filed by Soren on Wednesday in Jharkhand HC, which had listed it for hearing on Thursday. Sibal said he had advised his client to withdraw the petition from HC.
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