Banna sworn in as 12th cabinet minister

Ranchi: Jamshedpur (west) MLA Banna Gupta was sworn in as a minister in the Hemant Soren-led coalition government from the Congress quota here on Saturday.
Governor Syed Ahmed administered the oath of office and secrecy to him at Birsa Mandap of Raj Bhavan. More than 100 Congress supporters were present on the occasion along with Gupta’s family members.
Gupta replaced another minister from Congress quota, Yogendra Sao, who was removed following revelations about his involvement with a criminal gang.He was accused of founding and funding criminal outfit, Jharkhand Tiger Group, which is infamous for kidnapping, extortion and contract killing.
Even as Gupta has been sworn in as the 12th member of the Hemant Soren cabinet, he is technically the 15th minister in the year-and-half-old government. The coalition government has been formed with the cabinet berth sharing formula of JMM-five, Congress-five and RJD-two.
Till date, the coalition government has replaced three ministers — two from Congress quota and one from JMM – thereby making Gupta the 15th minister to take oath.
Earlier, Chandrashekhar Dubey of Congress was replaced by K N Tripathy while Simon Marandi of JMM was replaced by Lobin Hembram. Sao has bee removed, but the the trouble of Soren government is far from being over. As many as five FIRs are pending against Gupta, and a chargesheet has been filed in most of them. At the time of contesting election, Gupta had as many as five different cases pending against him. They ranged from violation of prohibition orders to molesting a woman and attempting a murder. He has also been charged under section 27 of the Arms Act.
Gupta is one among the 58 MLAs facing graft charges and whose cases are pending in the Jharkhand high court. A PIL had been filed demanding quick action against the 58 tainted MLAs and one tainted MP from Jharkhand, hearing which the court directed the state government to expedite investigation in the matter of 38 MLAs against whom cases were filed, but investigations are pending. An advocate at the Jharkhand high court Rajiv Kumar said the earlier government was directed to file a status report by September 3, which was later extended to October 25. “Once he has become the minister, there is every possibility that the direction of investigation would be affected,” Kumar said.
Earlier in 2006, erstwhile governor Syed Sibte Razi had refused administering oath of office to one of the tainted MLAs, Bhanu Pratap Shahi in Madhu Koda cabinet. Shahi was absconding at that time to evade arrest. Later, the oath was administered to his father Lal Hemandra Pratap Dehati for six months. On his subsequent surrender and release from jail on bail, he was made a minister replacing his father.