Shibu Soren

Infobox_Indian_politician
name =
caption =
birth_date =Birth date and age|1944|1|11|df=y
birth_place =Hazaribagh, Jharkhand
residence =Bokaro
death_date =
death_place =
office = Ex-MP
constituency = Dumka
salary =
term =
predecessor =
successor =
party =JMM
religion =
spouse = Roopi Soren
children = 3 sons and 1 daughter
website =
footnotes =
date = 25 September
year = 2006
source = http://164.100.24.208/ls/lsmember/biodata.asp?mpsno=2917

Shibu Soren (born 11 January 1944) is an Indian politician who is the current Chief Minister of Jharkhand state in India. [cite web|publisher = Rediff|url = http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/aug/27jhar.htm|title = Shibu Soren sworn in as Jharkhand CM|accessdate = 2008-08-29] He was sworn in as the 6th Chief Minister of Jharkhand on August 27, 2008 and won a trust vote on August 29 in the Legislative Assembly. [cite web|publisher = Rediff|url = http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/aug/29soren.htm|title = Jharkhand CM Shibu Soren wins trust vote|accessdate = 2008-08-29] He previously represented the Dumka constituency of Jharkhand in the 14th Lok Sabha and is the President of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) political party, a constituent of the UPA.

He was the Minister for Coal in the Union Cabinet in November 2006, when a Delhi district court found him guilty in the murder of his private secretary Shashi Nath Jha in 1994.cite news
title = Shibu Soren guilty in murder case, quits cabinet
author = PTI
publisher = rediff.com
url = http://us.rediff.com/news/2006/nov/28soren.htm?q=tp&file=.htm
date = November 28, 2006
accessdate = 2007-05-12] He has also been indicted in the past on other criminal charges.

Life

Soren was born in Nemra village of Hazaribagh district, Jharkhand States and territories of India. He completed his schooling from the same district. After schooling, he got married and decided to work with his father who was a farmer. He has three sons—Durga, Hemant, and Basant—and a daughter, Anjali.

He started his political career in the early 1970s and rose to become a tribal leader. On 23 January 1975, he was alledly part of a mob that attacked the Muslim-dominated Chirudih village in Jamtara district in a campaign to drive away "outsiders", a term used to describe non-tribals. Ten people including nine Muslims were killed in the attack. Along with sixty eight others, he was charged with murder.

He lost his first Lok Sabha election in 1977. He was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1980. In 1986, an arrest warrant was issued against him. He was subsequently elected to the Lok Sabha in 1989, 1991 and 1996 as well. In 2002, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha with the help of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He won the Dumka Lok Sabha seat in a by-election the same year and resigned his Rajya Sabha seat. He was re-elected in 2004.

He became the Union Coal Minister in the Manmohan Singh government, but was asked to resign following an arrest warrant in his name in the thirty-year old Chirudih case. After the warrant was issued, he initially went underground. He resigned on 24 July 2004. He was able to secure bail after spending over a month in judicial custody; released on bail in September 8, he was re-inducted into the Union Cabinet and given back the coal ministry on 27 November 2004, as part of a deal for a Congress-JMM alliance before assembly elections in Jharkhand in February/March 2005 [http://www.hindu.com/2004/11/28/stories/2004112808950100.htm] .

On 2 March 2005, he was invited to form the government in Jharkhand by the Governor of Jharkhand, Syed Sibtey Razi. He resigned as Chief Minister nine days later, on 11 March, following his failure to obtain a vote of confidence in the assembly.

Life imprisonment and acquittal

On 28 November 2006, Soren was found guilty of murder in the twelve year old case of the kidnapping and murder of his former personal secretary Shashinath Jha. Apparently Jha was abducted from the Dhaula Kuan area in Delhi on May 22, 1994 and taken to Piska Nagari village near Ranchi where he was killed. The CBI chargesheet stated that Jha's knowledge of the reported deal between the Congress and the JMM to save the then Narasimha Rao government during the July 1993 no-confidence motion and an act of sodomy was the motive behind the murder. The charge-sheet asserted that: "Jha was aware of the illegal transactions and also expected and demanded a substantial share out of this amount from Soren." [http://news.indlaw.com/527C7CE8127F523ABA578A792E73B70B]

Soren has resigned from his post of Union Minister for Coal after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanded that he do so in the wake of the verdict. This is the first case of a Union Minister of the Government of India being found guilty of involvement in a murder. On 5 December 2006, Shibu Soren was sentenced to life imprisonment; he still awaits trial in the Chirudih case.

Recently a Delhi court rejected his bail plea, stating: 'We cannot overlook the fact that the appellant (Soren) has been convicted after a detailed and elaborate trial only in November 2006 and sentenced in December 2006.' [cite web
title = Shibu Soren's bail plea rejected
date = 2007-03-14
accessdate = 2007-05-13
url = http://www.nerve.in/news:25350037986 ] The bench also noted that he was also being tried in a number of other cases, including the case of mass murder in Jharkhand.

Subsequently however, the court pulled up the prosecuting attorney, R M Tiwari of the (Central Bureau of Investigation), for "not doing its homework" and presenting weak evidence [cite news
title = HC slams CBI for failing to counter Soren challenge
author = Abhinav Garg
publisher = Times of India
url = http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/TOIonline/India/HC_slams_CBI_for_failing_to_counter_Soren_challenge/articleshow/2081534.cms
date = 29 May 2007
accessdate = 2007-08-03] .

On June 25, 2007, Shibu Soren was being escorted to his jail in Dumka, Jharkhand when his convoy was attacked by bombs [cite news
title = Shibu Soren escapes bomb attack
publisher = India Abroad News Service IANS
url = http://shibu-soren-news.newslib.com/story/3909-3234880/
date = Monday June 25, 03:30 PM
accessdate = 2007-07-26] , but no one was hurt.

The Delhi High Court on 23 Aug 2007 overruled the District Court and acquitted Soren, [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/HC_acquits_Soren_slams_CBI_for_lapses/articleshow/2302536.cms] . stating that "the prosecution has miserably failed in bringing home the charge against the accused persons. The trial court's analysis is far from convincing and not sustainable." The five men convicted by the Tis Hazari court were held guilty of criminal conspiracy, abduction and murder primarily on the basis of forensic evidence provided by a post-mortem report of a body discovered in Jharkhand, namely a skull superimposition test and skull injury report. This was in addition to eyewitness accounts and some circumstantial evidenceFact|date=June 2008, concluding that the skeleton was not Jha and that the case reduced to merely circumstantial evidence.

References

External links

* [http://www.123bharath.com/india-news/index.php?action=fullnews&id=3427 Controversies have always tailed Shibu Soren] - 123bharath.com article dated 20 July 2004
* [http://www.rediff.com/news/2004/jul/21soren.htm Jharkhand cops chasing Union minister with arrest warrant] - rediff.com article dated 21 July 2004
* [http://web.mid-day.com/news/city/2004/july/88218.htm Shibu Soren goes underground] - Mid Day article dated 21 July 2004
* [http://www.indiaexpress.com/news/regional/delhi/20040724-0.html PM asks Shibu Soren to resign] - Indian Express article dated 24 July 2004
* [http://in.news.yahoo.com/040724/137/2f4lr.html Shibu Soren resigns after arrest warrant] - Yahoo! India News story dated 24 July 2004
* [http://www.123bharath.com/world-news/index.php?action=fullnews&id=4269 Shibu Soren: from farmer's son to fugitive minister] - 123bharath.com article dated 24 July 2004
* [http://news.indiainfo.com/2005/03/02/0203soren.html Shibu Soren appointed as Chief Minister of Jharkhand] - Indiainfo.com article dated 2 March 2004
* [http://in.rediff.com/election/2005/mar/02soren.htm Shibu Soren sworn in as Jharkhand CM] - rediff.com article dated 2 March 2004
* [http://164.100.24.208/ls/lsmember/homepage.asp?mpsno=2917 Home Page on the Parliament of India's Website]
* [http://www.nerve.in/timeline:shibu+soren News timeline for Shibu Soren]