India court grants bail to prominent opposition leader in money laundering case – JURIST

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 considered the evidence presented by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the investigative agency responsible for financial crimes, and came to the conclusion that the requirements for bail set under Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) were met. The court added:

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 prescribed are a reasonable belief of the accused person’s innocence and the court’s satisfaction that the accused person will not commit any offense on bail.

Soren talked to the media after his release, 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 was also the chief minister of Jharkhand before his arrest in January in connection with an ED investigation into an illegal possession of land. He is one of the two state chief ministers arrested by the ED in a money laundering case in the run-up to the recently concluded general elections in India. Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal was also arrested by ED in March, but he was granted bail by a local trial court on June 20. His bail was then stayed by the Delhi High Court in its final order on June 25.