SUMAN K SHRIVASTAVA
Ranchi, March 23: With electioneering for the Lok Sabha yet to gain momentum, at least eight politicians in Jharkhand have lost their rights to contest following convictions in corruption and crime cases.
According to the July 2013 order of the Supreme Court, if a public representative is convicted in a criminal case for two years or more, he or she will lose membership in the House. The law says that such convicts shall continue to be disqualified for a further six years from their release.
Notably, 31 of 81 MLAs (39 per cent) in Jharkhand have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
Madhu Koda
The dubious list of corrupt politicians begins with Madhu Koda, who was chief minister of Jharkhand from September 18 2006 to August 27 2008.
In 2017, a trial court found Koda guilty of corruption and conspiracy in allocating a Jharkhand-based coal block to Kolkata-based company Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Ltd. The Delhi High Court later declined to stay his conviction.
Hari Narayan Rai
Hari Narain Rai, Koda’s cabinet colleague, was convicted of money laundering and sentenced to seven years on January 31 2017.
Rai is a former minister of the Department of Tourism Development, Urban Development, Rural, Forest and Environment in the cabinet of chief ministers Arjun Munda, Madhu Koda and Shibu Soren.
Later, Rai and his wife were also found guilty in a DA case by the CBI court on December 14, 2016, and sentenced to five years in prison.
Anosh Ekka
Former Jharkhand minister Anosh Ekka was sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 2 crore in 2020 by a Ranchi court concerning a money laundering case.
He was also convicted on the charge of murdering a para teacher during the 2014 election.
Yogendra Sao and Nirmala Devi
Former minister Yogendra Sao and his ex-MLA wife, Nirmala Devi, were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in 2022 in a case related to the mob violence and consequent police firing incident at Barkagaon on October 1, 2016.
They are the parents of incumbent Barkagaon Congress MLA Amba Prasad.
The Jharkhand High Court, on March 22, rejected their appeal in this case.
Bandhu Tirkey
Former Education Minister and Congress Working President Bandhu Tirkey was sentenced to three years in jail for possessing disproportionate assets worth Rs 7.22 lakh while he was a minister in the state from 2005 to 2009.
The CBI filed a case against Tirkey in 2010 for allegedly amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income during his first stint as MLA between 2005 and 2009.
In 2013, the CBI filed a charge sheet against Tirkey but urged the court to close the case as the value of the disproportionate assets unearthed was low—Rs 6.28 lakh.
The court rejected the agency’s stand and took cognisance of the offence, starting the trial.
In the case, he was arrested on December 12, 2018, and was released after a few months.
Mamata Devi
Congress MLA from Ramgarh, Mamta Devi, along with 12 others, was sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment in December 2022.
The case related to the protesters’ firing and police retaliation at the water supply pump house on the banks of the Senegal River of the Inland Power Limited, a private industrial firm under the Rajrappa police station of Ramgarh district, in 2016.
Nizamuddin Ansari
The then JVM MLA from Dhanwar, Nizamuddin Ansari, was the first MLA of the Jharkhand assembly who was disqualified nearly a year after his conviction. On November 30, 2013, he was convicted of two years of imprisonment by a court in Giridih.
Amit Mahto out of SC ruling purview
Incidentally, ex-JMM MLA Amit Mahto was disqualified from the Jharkhand assembly in 2018 after being convicted in a criminal case by a Ranchi court for two years. However, the Jharkhand High Court later reduced his sentence to one year. Later, the Supreme Court also stayed his conviction, making him eligible to contest an election.
Mahto emerged as a giant killer in the 2014 assembly polls by defeating All Jharkhand Student Union supremo Sudesh Mahto from the Silli constituency.
Bhanu, Kamlesh and Sita Soren under scanner
The Enforcement Directorate has charged former health minister Bhanu Pratap Shahi with laundering Rs 7.79 crore. Another former minister, Kamlesh Kumar Singh, is facing trial in a corruption case. Jama MLA Sita Soren is also set to face trial in the 2012 Rajya Sabha bribery case.
