Daijiworld Media Network - Ranchi

Ranchi, Dec 3: In a major relief to Chief Minister Hemant Soren, the Jharkhand High Court on Wednesday exempted him from physically appearing in the MP-MLA Court in a case related to disobeying Enforcement Directorate (ED) summons. The petition was heard on merits by Justice Anil Chaudhary, who disposed of the matter.

Earlier, on November 25, Soren was directed to appear personally after the High Court vacated an interim order from December 4, 2024, which had exempted him from appearing before the Ranchi MP/MLA Court. The lower court was instructed to continue the trial process.

Senior advocates Arunav Chaudhary and Dipankar Rai represented the Chief Minister. Soren had earlier filed a petition seeking exemption from personal appearance, which was rejected by the lower court. He then approached the High Court, which temporarily stayed the lower court’s order, before finally disposing of the matter on Wednesday.

The case originated from an ED complaint filed on February 20, 2024, against Soren for disobeying summons in a money laundering case linked to a land scam. The case was later transferred to the MP-MLA Court on June 3. The court had earlier observed that Soren had ignored ED summons on eight occasions, appearing only twice—on January 20 and 31.

After initially avoiding the agency, Soren cooperated with ED questioning at his Ranchi residence for over seven hours on January 20. He later agreed to a second questioning on January 31, following a total of ten summons. The ED arrested him on January 31, 2024, after he went untraceable for about 40 hours following his disappearance from his Delhi residence.