In a big relief for Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, the Supreme Court today said the plea for probing the CM in an illegal mining case is not maintainable.
The Jharkhand HC earlier upheld the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that sought a probe against Soren by the central agencies—CBI and ED.
While speaking to Outlook, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya said, "This was a political vendetta going on. And this is not a moral victory rather a truth has come out. We will look into what can be further done in ED summon."
Terming the whole thing as 'conspiracy', the spokesperson told Outlook, “This conspiracy has been going on for a long. In Indian judiciary, you can't just sacrifice anybody and everybody without any ground.”
Earlier, the governor Ramesh Bais was reportedly asked by the Election Commission (EC) to disqualify the CM on the ground of violating the Representation of People's Act, 1951. BJP in 2021 alleged that the CM had taken advantage of his official position to lease a coal mine in his name. Despite several requests from the government, the governor didn't reveal the recommendations of EC and said that he has further sent it back to the commission for a second opinion.
However, the advocate general in a letter in April 2022 clarified that it was a mistake and the lease had been surrendered. The issue came to further notice as ED arrested Pankaj Mishra, a close aide of CM a few months back.
In a recently filed charge sheet, ED mentioned that Mishra had 'clout' over mining officials for his alleged relationship with the Chief Minister himself.
Following the charge sheet ED had called Soren to appear in front of it on November 3. However, the CM sought time from ED and said that if he is a culprit let the government arrest him. The CM skipped the ED summons and went to Raipur to attend a tribal programme.
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha government has been alleging that the BJP is trying to destabilise its government. In the last few days, there have been several mobilisations across the state against what they term an effort topple the elected government.
