Ranchi
The Supreme Court is scheduled to take up former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s plea against his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate on Friday. A special bench of Justice Sanjeev Khanna, Justice MM Sundaresh, and Justice Bela Trivedi will hear the petition. “The arrest is part of a well-orchestrated conspiracy which has been given shape at the anvil of the general elections slated in a few months,” it said.
As a result, while a PMLA Court here on Thursday remanded Hemant to just a 1-day judicial custody against the agency’s demand for a 10-day period, the Jharkhand High Court also deferred its hearing on his challenge to his arrest till tomorrow.Consequently, the ED did not get Hemant Soren’s custody and the PMLA Court will hear the arguments on Friday to decide. The ED has arrested him in a money laundering case related to an alleged land scam.
Fast-paced political activities continued in the meantime. JMM’s new legislative party leader met Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan and requested him to start the process of formation of new government. “The Governor has also assured us that the process will begin soon. Currently we have submitted the report with 43 MLAs in our support. We expect that the number will reach 46-47 so there is no problem. Our ‘gathbandhan’ is very strong,” Champai told media persons emerging from the meeting.
JMM MP Mahua Majhi said: “As soon as Hemant Soren submitted his resignation, we presented our claim to form the government. 43 MLAs went along in a bus but they were not called. But in Bihar, the new government was formed within 5 hours. Even after 22 hours, when representatives of all the parties went, there was no discussion on forming the government. No time or further information was provided. This creates a question on their intention.”
Following the meeting, leaders of the ruling alliance and all the 43 MLAs were set to fly out to Hyderabad as Jharkhand Congress president Rajesh Thakur said, “You know what kind of people they are, they can do anything anytime. A total of 43 MLAs are going.” Telangana now has a Congress government in place, hence the move to Hyderabad. But low visibility owing to a thick blanket of fog prevented the MLAs from flying out even as the Revanth Reddy government in Telangana kept buses and all arrangements ready for the Jharkhand legislators.
However, among the notable absentees in the ruling were from Hemant’s own family — his sister-in-law and own brother Sita Soren and Basant Soren (both MLAs) respectively.
Earlier, a letter written by Hemant to JMM MLAs informing them about his decision to nominate Champai Soren as his successor surfaced and a video recorded by him before his “planned” arrest was also released showing him as exhorting all to gear up for a new fight against feudal powers even while rejecting allegations in the land scam case against him.
