The Jharkhand high court on Monday refused to grant any relief to former chief minister Hemant Soren in a petition filed by him challenging the Enforcement Directorate (ED)’s action against him before he was arrested. The court has sought a reply from ED and fixed the next hearing on February 12.

The bench of acting chief justice of the high court, justice S Chandrashekhar and justice Anubha Rawat Choudhary has sought a reply from the ED. The court has directed ED to file its reply by February 9. After this the court fixed February 12 for the next hearing.

Soren had filed a petition in the high court challenging the summons given to him by ED and said that the agency was abusing its powers. He said ED officials were accusing him of not cooperating in the investigation and wanted to arrest him on this basis.

Earlier, Soren had knocked the Supreme Court challenging the arrest by the ED, however, the Supreme Court on February 2 refused to entertain a writ petition filed by former chief minister Hemant Soren, challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate and asked him to approach the Jharkhand high court.

Meanwhile, in another development the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials, who were implicated in an FIR on a complaint filed by former Chief Minister Hemant Soren, have approached the Jharkhand High Court in their personal capacity to contest the FIR registered against them. The FIR, which was lodged on Wednesday by the Jharkhand Police under the SC/ST Act at the SC/ST police station in Ranchi, is based on a complaint by Soren concerning searches conducted by the ED at his Delhi residence.

The FIR filed by the Jharkhand Police under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (SC/ST Act), accused senior ED officials of various offenses related to the search conducted at Soren's residence in Delhi. The FIR lists ED Additional Director Kapil Raj, Assistant Director Deovrat Jha, and two other officials, Anuman Kumar and Aman Patel, along with unnamed officials.

The FIR invokes sections of the SC/ST Act, including 3(1) (p) [instituting false, malicious or vexatious legal proceedings], (r) [intentional insult or intimidation within public law], (s) [abusing by caste name in any place within public view], and (u) [promoting feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will].