DC Edit | Hemant back, questions for ED
Deccan ChronicleJharkhand Mukti Morcha chief Hemant Soren was sworn in as the chief minister of Jharkhand after being in prison for five months, putting him in a small league of CMs who have taken oath of office after a stint in jail. Justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay, judge of the Jharkhand high court, while granting bail to Hemant Soren, made scathing remarks on the maintainability of the ED’s charges, and observed that there were reasons for the court to believe that Mr Soren was perhaps not guilty of the PMLA offence. However, the ED appears to have gone ahead with the arrest of Mr Hemant Soren armed with special provisions of the PMLA, the judge observed. If an investigative agency could arrest an elected chief minister merely on circumstantial evidence, it amounts to violation of the federal spirit of the Constitution, too, and is a subversion of the people’s mandate.