New Delhi, 29 April

The Supreme Court on Monday sought a response from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on an interim bail plea of former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren in a money laundering case.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta issued notice to the ED and sought its response by 6 May. The bench said the Jharkhand High Court may pronounce its verdict on Soren's plea challenging his arrest in the case. The order was reserved on 28 February .

Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Arunabh Chowdhury, appearing for Soren, said they want interim bail in the matter.

Soren moved the top court on 24 April, saying the high court was not pronouncing the verdict on his plea challenging his arrest in the case. Soren was arrested on January 31 shortly after he resigned as the chief minister, and state transport minister Champai Soren was named his successor.

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. The money laundering investigation stems from multiple FIRs registered by Jharkhand Police in land "scam" cases against several people, including state government officials.

The ED is probing the alleged "huge amounts of proceeds of crime generated by manipulation of official records by showing dummy sellers and purchasers in the guise of forged/bogus documents to acquire huge parcels of land having value in crores".