The Jharkhand High Court on Friday granted bail to former CM Hemant Soren in the land scam case. After hearing both sides on June 13, the court had kept its order reserved which was pronounced on Friday.

Soren is currently under judicial custody after being arrested by ED on January 31 in a money laundering case linked to the land scam. Soren, after rejection of his interim bail plea and subsequent withdrawal of his petition from the Supreme Court, has moved the High Court seeking a regular bail for him.

The ED had told the court during hearings that since Soren is the largest beneficiary of the scam, he should not be granted bail. The agency alleged that Soren has illegally occupied 8.86 acres of land in Bargain area, which is money laundering under the provisions of PMLA 2002.

If granted bail, Soren may try to obstruct the investigation by misusing the state machinery, Senior Advocate, SV Raju, appearing on behalf of ED said. Raju had told the court there was a plan to build a banquet hall on the said land located in Bargain and a map was also sent on Hemant Soren’s mobile phone by Architect Vinod Singh.

Meenakshi Arora on other hand, appearing on behalf of Soren, said that this is not a case of money laundering, rather it is a case of political vendetta and is a malicious prosecution by the central government misusing the investigating agency i.e. ED.

Meanwhile, the ED so far has provisionally attached tainted land parcels worth Rs 266 crore (Commercial Value) and has arrested 22 accused persons including IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan, Bhanu Pratap Prasad (Revenue Sub-Inspector), Amit Kumar Agarwal, Prem Prakash among others in the money laundering case linked to land scam.

According to ED, three Prosecution Complaints have been filed in the cases of land scams presently under investigation in the State. The probe against Soren pertains to an 8.86-acre plot of land in Ranchi that the ED has alleged was illegally acquired by him.