Money laundering case: SC rejects ED's plea challenging Jharkhand CM's bail

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea filed by the Enforcement Directorate challenging a Jharkhand High Court order granting bail to Chief Minister Hemant Soren in a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam.

A bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan said the high court's June 28 order was "very well reasoned".

"We are not inclined to interfere with the impugned order," the bench said.

Soren, the executive president of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), had resigned as chief minister shortly before the ED arrested him on January 31 in the case. After coming out of jail on bail in the case, he returned as the chief minister of Jharkhand on July 4.

Opposing Soren's bail plea in the high court, the ED had alleged that he misused his position as the chief minister to "unlawfully" acquire 8.86 acres of land in the Bargain area in the state capital Ranchi.

Soren's lawyer had contended that he was falsely implicated in the criminal case by the central agency.

Th