India’s Jharkhand state high court granted bail on Friday to opposition party Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Hemant Soren in a money laundering case. The court evaluated the evidence presented by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the investigative agency responsible for financial crimes, and determined that the bail requirements under Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) had been satisfied.
The court stated: “The twin conditions as prescribed u/s 45 PMLA, 2002, having been fulfilled, I am inclined to allow this application. Accordingly, the petitioner is directed to be released on bail on furnishing bail bond of Rs. 50,000/- (Rupees Fifty Thousand only) with two sureties of the like amount each.” The twin conditions require a reasonable belief in the accused person’s innocence and assurance that the accused will not commit any offense on bail.
Following his release, Soren spoke to the media, stating: “I was kept behind bars for 5 months. We are seeing how the judicial process is taking years not just days or months. Today, it is a message for the whole country that how a conspiracy was hatched against us. The fight we started and the resolutions we made, we will work to fulfil them.”
Soren, who was also the chief minister of Jharkhand, was arrested in January as part of an ED investigation into illegal land possession. He is one of two state chief ministers arrested by the ED in connection with money laundering cases leading up to the recently concluded general elections in India. The other is Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who was also arrested by the ED in March. Kejriwal was granted bail by a local trial court on June 20, but the Delhi High Court stayed the bail order in its final verdict on June 25.
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