The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to interfere with proceedings pending before the Lokpal of India against Jharkhand former Chief Minister and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) patriarch Shibu Soren in a case related to an alleged accumulation of disproportionate assets
Justice Subramonium Prasad held that Soren's plea was premature. Soren, who is now a Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP), had approached the Court challenging the proceedings before the Lokpal and its order dated August 4, 2022, through which proceedings were directed to be initiated to determine whether a prima facie case exists to proceed further against him.
His plea argued that this order was passed without considering Soren’s objections that no inquiry could be conducted against him because the complaint had been filed more than seven years after the alleged incident. Section 53 of the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act 2013 bars such investigation after the expiry of the limitation period, Soren argued.
The plea further said that proceedings before the Lokpal have been registered pursuant to a complaint dated August 5, 2020, and that although the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) commenced a preliminary enquiry sometime in July 2021 against Soren, his wife and their children, no copy of the complaint was provided to Soren till the end of February 2022.
Soren also challenged the Lokpal’s order of September 2020 through which the Lokpal directed the CBI to conduct a preliminary inquiry against Soren and submit a report.
The allegations against Soren are that he has amassed huge wealth, properties and assets by adopting unscrupulous and corrupt means in the State of Jharkhand over a period of more than ten years.
The assets, it is alleged, are not only in his own name but even in the names of his family members including sons, daughters, daughter-in-law, friends and various companies in various districts of Jharkhand, such as Ranchi, Dhanbad and Dumka etc.
The JMM patriarch has termed the allegations and the complaint mischievous, false, frivolous and motivated and a rambling yarn spun by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey.
