New Delhi: Scandal and allegations of crime are not a new matter for Coal Minister Shibu Soren, who was on Tuesday convicted for abducting and murdering his private secretary 12 years ago.
The 62-year-old politician became minister in 2004 when the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government came to power. However, he was forced to resign two months later after a 30-year-old case of mass murder in which he was allegedly involved resurfaced.
Soren had been declared an absconder in the case 20 years ago and the Jharkhand High Court finally directed him to surrender before a district court. The case related to the killing of 11 people, including nine Muslims, during a drive spearheaded by Soren to drive away dikus or outsiders from Jamtara in Jharkhand.
Soren finally surrendered and quit the cabinet after a weeklong drama that also saw Parliament paralysed. He secured bail after spending a month in judicial custody.
Soren returned to the cabinet in October 2004 but resigned in March 2005 to become the chief minister of Jharkhand. He quit five days later after failing to prove his majority in the assembly.
He returned to the cabinet for the third time in January and stepped down on Tuesday soon after a court in Delhi convicted him for the murder of Shashi Nath Jha in 1994.
Jha was abducted and murdered reportedly because he had knowledge of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) bribery case in which the party’s MPs allegedly took money to save the P V Narasimha Government. Soren was acquitted in the case.
Soren is also facing a disproportionate assets case for which the Central Bureau of Investigation has filed a chargesheet against him.
Soren entered Parliament in 1980 when he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Dumka.
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He became Jharkhand's chief minister for a brief period last year at the head of a coalition government that did not have majority, drawing protests from the BJP-led NDA.
He resigned shortly before a trial of strength in the Assembly. Soren was born into a Santhal school teacher's family at Nemra village in Hazaribagh district in 1944.
He began his political career by launching a fight against moneylenders after his father's murder. He formed the Santhal Sudhav Samaj at Dhanbad.
He founded the JMM in 1972 and became its general secretary. Fifteen years later, he took over as its president, a post he continues to hold.
Known among his followers as ‘Guruji’, Soren fought for Jharkhand’s statehood and served as chairman of the Jharkhand Autonomous Council.
Soren is currently chairman of the UPA's steering committee in Jharkhand. His 17-member legislature party is part of the Madhu Koda-led state government.
Soren saw the JMM at its peak when five of its members were elected to the Lok Sabha and supported the Congress government under Rao in 1995.
His political career suffered when the JMM bribery scandal surfaced, but it survived this setback as well as the effect of four of Soren's former Lok Sabha colleagues leaving the party.
If Soren resigns now, it will be the third time he has quit the same ministry in the past two-and-half years.
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