Ranchi, Jun 30 (PTI) The Jharkhand High Court on Thursday heard the public interest litigations related to alleged money laundering and office of profit against Chief Minister Hemant Soren and his aides.

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The court fixed the next date of hearing on July 5.

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A division bench of Chief Justice Dr Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad heard the petitions for the entire day. The proceedings started at 10.30 AM and continued till 4.30 PM.

Petitioner Shiv Shankar Sharma has claimed that Soren had obtained a mining lease in his name while holding the office of the chief minister. In another petition, he alleged that there are several shell companies which are connected to the CM and his close aides.

Claiming that those companies have been formed only on paper to launder ill-gotten money, Sharma's counsel Rajiv Kumar sought a CBI probe into the matter.

Soren was defended by Delhi-based senior advocate Meenakshi Arora while Kapil Sibbal appeared for the state government.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)