SC to hear on Monday ED's plea challenging bail to Hemant Soren

 July 28 (IANS) The Supreme Court is slated to hear on Monday the plea filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) challenging the Jharkhand High Court's decision to grant bail to JMM leader Hemant Soren in a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam. As per the causelist published on the website of the apex court, a bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan will take up the matter for hearing on July 29. The Jharkhand High Court had granted Soren regular bail on June 28 with certain conditions. The ED has filed a special leave petition before the apex court, seeking that Soren's bail be cancelled. Just a week after his release from jail, Soren had taken oath as Jharkhand Chief Minister for the third time on July 4. He was arrested by the ED on January 31 and spent five months in jail before being released on bail. Earlier in May, the top court had refused to entertain Soren’s plea against his ED arrest. It had pulled up the JMM leader for pushing “parallel proceedings” observing that the plea filed before the Supreme Court did not disclose the fact of cognisance taken by the special court on the prosecution’s (ED) complaint. Raising serious questions on the concealment of facts, it dismissed the plea since the petitioner did not approach the highest judicial forum with clean hands. --IANS pds/uk