VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, June 22: When the Chief Minister Hemant Soren, MLA brother Basant Soren, and his party the JMM, are fighting the toughest legal battle from the court to the Election Commission of India, the party’s forgotten legal brain Sanjiv Kumar is in Ranchi who had successfully defended party patriarch Shibu Soren in several criminal cases.
The senior lawyer and former party MP Sanjiv Kumar was once the blue-eyed boy of Shibu Soren and he wielded considerable influence in the party. As a lawyer, he defended Shibu Soren from the lower court to the Supreme Court spanning many decades. These cases include the Shashinath Jha murder case, the JMM bribery case, the Chirudih murder case and some others.
The party made him the Rajya Sabha MP in 2012. He resigned from the JMM on February 14, 2020, apparently after Chief Minister Hemant Soren appointed Rajiv Ranjan as the advocate general by ignoring his advice.
When India’s two best legal eagles Kapil Sibal and Mukul Rohatgi are defending the state government and the chief minister in the PIL 4290/2021 and 727/2022 from the Jharkhand High Court to the Supreme Court, Sanjiv Kumar is in Ranchi appearing for his other clients.
He is not willing to talk much about his past association with the Soren family and the JMM. “I owe to Shibu Soren and I treat him as my guardian. I am satisfied that as a lawyer I secured his acquittal in all criminal cases. I resigned from the JMM in February 2020 and after that, I have not even met Shibu Soren. I heard he is not keeping good health. I have seen and served the party from the day of its foundation. But all these are matters of the past,” Sanjiv Kumar said.
He was asked whether he was aware of the ongoing court battle Hemant Soren and Basant Soren have been fighting and their membership in the Jharkhand assembly is also under threat and the matter is being examined by the Election Commission of India.
As per the PIL 4290/2021, the family is alleged to have amassed huge wealth through corrupt means and the same was parked in different shell companies. In the second PIL probe has been demanded against the CM for availing the mining lease in his name. The BJP has pulled all triggers to get both the brothers disqualified from the assembly on the grounds of the office of profit. An adverse order of the court and the Election Commission of India meant an unprecedented legal and political crisis for Sorens.
Would he like to come back and save the Soren brothers the way he defended their father? He refuses to answer such imaginative situations. “I have not looked back after 2020. As a man and as a lawyer I am opposed to any unsolicited concerns and comments. I should not comment if I am not concerned with any person and the case. It would not be proper for me. I only have best wishes for them,” he said.
Sanjiv Kumar who has his legal practice in Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court is in Ranchi for the past fortnight. On Wednesday he appeared for clients who are accused in an NIA case. On June 24, he is set to appear before the Jharkhand High Court on behalf of former minister Harinarayan Rai in a criminal case.
