SC to hear Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren’s petition against ED on Sept 15

Ranchi: The Supreme Court will hear the petition filed by Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren against the ED on September 15. Soren has challenged the summons sent to him by the ED for questioning. The petition filed by Soren in the Supreme Court has challenged the validity of Sections 50 and 63 of the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) 2002. The investigating agency has the power under Section 50 to record a statement or arrest anyone during interrogation. Hence the fear of arrest after issuing the summons remains.
CM Hemant Soren has requested the Supreme Court to stay the summons and order the ED not to take punitive action. Let it be known that the ED sent summons to Hemant Soren three times in August and asked him to appear at the zonal office of the ED in Ranchi for questioning. Soren did not appear on any of these summonses.

He wrote a letter to the ED’s assistant director, describing the action as politically motivated. He had informed the ED that he had filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court against the action, so he would not appear before the agency till the hearing. He was first summoned on August 8 and asked to appear on August 14, but he did not turn up.

During that time he had said that he had to hoist the flag on the occasion of the 77th Independence Day on 15th August, many meetings were already scheduled, and many programs were included in such a plan to destabilise the government by suddenly calling him for questioning on 14 August. The Chief Minister alleged that the investigating agencies are working at the behest of the central government.

The CM challenged the action of the ED
When he did not appear on the first summons, he was sent a second summons and asked to appear at the ED’s Ranchi zonal office for questioning on August 24, but this time CM Soren did not turn up. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister had written to the ED asking them to withdraw the summons. He also said to deal with ED under legal process calling the summons illegal. It is significant that the Chief Minister had filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court on August 23 challenging the action of the Enforcement Directorate.

After this, the ED sent him a third summons and summoned him for questioning on September 9. He was not present as he was on his way to attend a dinner hosted by the President on the sidelines of the G-20 summit.