Court sends Hemant Soren to one-day judicial custody after arrest by ED

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader and former chief minister Hemant Soren was on Thursday sent to one-day judicial custody by a special PMLA court in Ranchi, in connection with the Enforcement Directorate probe into an alleged land scam.

The Directorate of Enforcement had sought 10-day remand of the former Jharkhand Chief Minister but the order has been reserved.

The court has listed the next hearing in the case for tomorrow.

Justice Dinesh Rai, the Special Judge of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court, reserved the order after hearing both sides.

Soren was on Wednesday night arrested by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) after six hours of questioning in the money laundering case linked to the alleged land scam.

According to the ED, CM Soren was questioned as a part of the probe into the "huge racket of illegal change of ownership of land by the mafia".

The probe pertains to huge amounts of proceeds of crime generated by forging official records by showing "fake sellers" and purchasers in the guise of forged or bogus documents to acquire huge parcels of land valued in crores.