The Supreme Court on Friday adjourned to September 18 the hearing on Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren's plea against the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) summons in an alleged money laundering case.
A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi deferred the matter after it was informed that senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi would appear in the matter for Soren.
"I am requesting the matter be heard on Monday. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi is leading us," a junior counsel said. The bench agreed to the submission.
Soren has moved the apex court challenging the summons sent to him to depose on August 14 at the federal agency's office in Ranchi and record his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Earlier, Soren had skipped the ED summons in an alleged defence land scam case citing pre-scheduled events. Section 50 empowers the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to summon an accused and record a statement. The statement is admissible as evidence in court.
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.
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.
Further Soren in his petition has mentioned that ED has limited power to investigate the offence of money laundering and not to start an enquiry into assets which he had acquired more than 15 years ago and which have duly reported to and accepted by the appropriate authorities.
The Chief Minister in his plea has also mentioned that not informing the person being summoned as to in which capacity he is being summoned is violative of the Fundamental Rights and scheme of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
Notably, the ED is probing two major cases of alleged money laundering in Jharkhand. The first case is related to illegal mining in Sahibganj in which the CM was questioned on November 17 last year. The second case is related to the alleged land scam in the state capital.