Hemant Soren, executive chief of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), took oath as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand for the third time on Thursday, days after being released from jail in a money laundering case.
Earlier in the day, Governor C P Radhakrishnan invited Soren to form the government, following the resignation of his predecessor Champai Soren. Champai Soren stepped down on Wednesday after the ruling coalition’s 45 MLAs elected Hemant Soren as their leader.
Hemant Soren was granted bail by the Jharkhand High Court on June 28, five months after his arrest. The court noted that there were “reasons to believe that he was not guilty of the offence” of money laundering related to a plot of land in Ranchi.