VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, June 30: The Jharkhand High Court on Thursday recorded arguments of petitioner and respondent in the PILs 4290/2021 and 727/2022 about the merit of both the PILs where allegations have been made out against Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
The division bench of Chief Justice Dr Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad started the hearing at 10.30 am.
Rajiv Kumar, lawyer of petitioner Shiv Shankar Sharma said that in the first PIL 4290/2021 the petitioner has placed some facts that show how the chief minister and people close to him amassed unaccounted wealth and parked monies in different shell companies.
He further said that even people close to Hemant Soren and his family have raised huge assets through corruption. He submitted details of properties raised by Jharkhand Assembly employee Vivek Raut close to the Soren family. He said that Vivek Raut might be getting around Rs 60000 salary a month and has raised properties in Crores.
Rajiv Kumar claimed that Vivek Raut has invested in the resort and other businesses along with Ranjan Sahu. He claimed Ravi Kejriwal alias Jhunu Kejriwal was once a close associate of Hemant Soren and he managed everything on behalf of Hemant Soren including investment and parking through the shell companies.
He claimed that Ravi Kejriwal who has no obvious business has amassed huge properties including a 200-room hotel named Manish Hotel at Howrah. Besides, he acquired the Andita Sponge Iron in the power plant at Jharsuguda and Chhattisgarh. He said that all these needed to be investigated by the CBI.
Rajiv Kumar said that a number of IAS officials are involved in the corruption and they have given patronage to corrupt activities. In such a situation the state police can’t investigate the matter. He referred to the case of Palamu DC who gave a mining lease to his mother-in-law. On this, the Chief Justice asked whether or not the state government took any action against Palamu DC Shashi Ranjan.
Rajiv Kumar said that corruption in Jharkhand has reached a serious level where the chief minister acquired a mining lease in his name and gave land to the Sohrai Livestock, the company of his wife Kalpana Soren, and a mining lease to his brother Basant Soren. He pointed out that the state government has admitted that Grands Mining Limited has as many as five mining leases the company which is owned by his brother Basant Soren besides land was granted to the company of Kalpana Soren.
Kapil Sibal who appeared on behalf of the Jharkhand government said that the petitioner has cast aspersion without having any evidence. Sibal said that even such companies have been propagated as shell companies which were formed in 1969.
He referred to the case of Anoop Tea Pvt Limited which was set up in 1969. He said that the petitioner did not provide any prima facie material to substantiate his allegation. He said that the land lease was granted to Sohrai Livestock under the due process of law and the lease was cancelled, a fact which the petitioner suppressed. He said that baseless allegations were made against Binu Thakur (brother of minister Mithilesh Thakur) and several other IAS and private persons.
