VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, Aug 17: Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Wednesday got a relief after the Supreme Court directed the Jharkhand High Court not to carry further proceedings in the PILs against him.
The bench of Justice UU Lalit and SR Bhat of the Supreme Court passed the order while hearing a Special Leave Petition (SLP) of the state government challenging the maintainability order passed by the Jharkhand high court in the favour of the PIL 4290/21 and 727/22 filed by Shiv Shankar Sharma.
The Supreme Court concluded the hearing and reserved its order. The petitioner accused the Chief Minister and his associates for laundering money through various shell companies besides securing a stone mining lease in his name.
During the hearing, Abhishek Roy, advocate of the petitioner, said that the life of his client is under threat and the state should ensure protection for him and his family. To this the court directed senior advocate Kapil Sibal to ensure physical safety of the petitioner. Kapil Sibal appeared for the state government.
The Additional Solicitor General of India argued that during the probe of the MNREGA scam where IAS Pooja Singhal is accused, several premises were raided. Many connecting pieces of evidence were found indicating grave irregularities involving high profiles hence the probe was required. The ASG said that investigation has revealed many Kolkata based shell companies were used to launder money. To this the SC pointed out whether or not Income Tax authorities or SFIO could have probed offences in Kolkata?
The Supreme Court asked whether the petitioner was ready to take burden of the allegations that he made in the petition and was aware of the developments as a complainant. The court further asked whether he wanted aid from investigation agencies to substantiate his allegations.
